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•RTHODOXY, 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
Shelf -A.1 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE 



Contradictions of Orthodoxy; 



OR 



What Shall I Do to Be Saved?" 



AS ANSWERED BY SEVERAL REPRESENTATIVE 

ORTHODOX CLERGYMEN OF CHICAGO; WITH 

SERMONS ON THE SAME SUBJECT BY 

PROF. DAVID SWING, REV. D. L. 

MOODY, AND OTHERS. 



ALL OF WHICH IS CAREFULLY EXAMINED AND 

CRITICALLY REVIEWED IN THE LIGHT 

OF THE SACRED SCRIPTURES. 



BY 

ALMER M. COLLINS, M. D. 



£°-MjM^ 



CHICAGO, 

CENTRAL BOOK CONCERN. 

1880. 



> 



,q 



Copyright by 

CENTRAL BOOK CONCERN, 

1880. 



The Library 
of Congress 



WASHtsr.loN 



f 

(I 



DEDICATION. 

To my faithful and affectionate Wife, 

whose love and admiration for 

the Truth is only equaled by 

her devotion and zeal, 

this little volume is respectfully 

dedicated, 

BY THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE. 



This little volume is sent forth upon its humble 
mission with the fondly-cherished hope that it may 
be the means, under the providence of God, of con- 
tributing to the enlightenment of all who chance to 
read its pages, upon the most important and all- 
absorbing question that ever commanded the attention 
or enlisted the sympathies of the human race. 

The subject of salvation is infinitely above all other 
subjects, and includes within its amplitude the high- 
est, purest, and most enduring interests of man's im- 
mortal nature. In its presence all other themes sink 
into comparative nothingness and are lost to view. 

It is believed that this subject has been presented 
in the following pages in such a light, and in such 
striking contrasts with popular religious errors, as 
will give all possible prominence to the truth, and 
secure a hearty acquiescence, as well as ready and 
willing acceptance of God's simple, yet sublime plan 
of salvation, on the part of all such as are honestly 
seeking the " way of life." 

That it may strengthen and comfort the saved, 
and be the means of saving the lost, is both the 
hope and the prayer of 

THE AUTHOR. 



HISTORY OF THTS CONTROVERSY. 

The within controversy, which occupied such a 
large space in the columns of the Chicago Times and 
Tribune during the months of January and February 
of the current year, awakened such a widespread and 
profound interest among the learned and leadiug 
clergymen of all denominations, and called forth such 
extended notices from both the secular as well as 
religious press, that its publication in book form seem- 
ed imperatively demanded. 

To meet this demand, the author has gathered up all 
the most important matter bearing upon the subject, 
including the original article which provoked the dis- 
cussion, and the answers of the several Chicago clergy- 
men to the question, u What must I do to be saved? " 
Also such sermons as were preached upon the subject 
by leading divines. To all this is added the reviews 
of the answers by the author, with such comments 
upon the sermons as their respective merits seemed to 
demand. This controversy was so voluminous, and 
extended itself through so many religious as well as 
secular journals, and called forth so much pulpit 
talent, that to publish all that was written and spoken 
upon the subject would require many volumes much 
larger than the one now offered. I have therefore 
selected what I thought to be the. most important, 
direct, and useful. 

In order to increase the interest of the reader, and 
(?) 



viii HISTORY OF THIS CONTROVERSY. 

also to answer the question which is often asked, viz. : 
"How did this controversy originate? " I have thought 
it proper to give a brief history of its origin, and also 
explain why it was not continued at greater length. 

I was spending the month of December of last year 
in the city of Chicago ; being wholly unoccupied, I 
made it in my way to attend the " Gospel Meetings," 
and other religious exercises of the leading denomina- 
tions of the city as often as possible. While in attend- 
ance upon these meetings I was surprised to witness so 
little real scriptural knowledge on the part of those 
who were most officious and prominent in conducting 
them. I saw young men, as I thought, sincerely and 
honestly seeking the way of life and salvation. I 
heard them ask for light and instruction, and carefully 
noted the answers which they uniformly received; and 
in not a single instance was the Bible answer given to 
the humble penitent. 

I thought, verily "when the blind lead the blind 
they must both fall into the ditch." I saw that hun- 
dreds of men and women were wandering in the dark- 
ness of ignorance, with their understandings clouded, 
being alienated from God through the moral blindness 
of their minds. I thought it sad that in a land of 
Bibles and of churches, there should be hundreds of 
dying men and women who knew not the plain and 
simple law of pardon as revealed in the New Testa- 
ment Scriptures; but what could I do to avert the sad 
doom or alter the unhappy condition of these dying 
mortals bound for the bar of God, and without hope 
or salvation? I said to myself, "I am unknown; I 
have no possible way of reaching this people; butl 



HISTORY OF THIS CONTROVERSY. ix 

will ask God for strength and help; and I did, and he 
opened up the way most gloriously as the sequel 
plainly shows. 

While thinking on this matter, I resolved to write a 
communication to the Chicago Times, setting forth as 
best I could the Gospel plan of salvation. *I cannot 
begin to tell the reader how happy I was in the prepa- 
ration of that article. I headed my communication 
"The Difference between Ancient and Modern 
Gospel Meetings;" and when it was finished I took 
it to the Times office and left it. I watched the paper 
carefully every day for two or three weeks, but it did 
not appear, and I gave up all hopes of ever seeing it in 
the columns of that paper. I called at the office to 
get the article ; but was unable to obtain it, or find out 
what had become of it. So I rewrote and sent it to 
the Evangelist, and in due time it made its appearance 
in that most excellent paper, with favorable editorial 
comments. About this time, much to my surprise and 
gratification, my first article appeared in the Sunday 
Times, in connection with extended interviews with the 
leading orthodox clergymen of Chicago upon the sub- 
ject matter of my communication, and also an extend- 
ed review of my article by one Kaklem. I need not 
tell the reader that I was happy, for he has doubtless 
anticipated as much. 

I at once replied to my reviewer, which reply was 
promptly published. He then published a brief re- 
joinder, to which I made an extended reply, which was 
for some reason rejected by the religious editor of the 
Times. The reason assigned was that I had misrepre 
sented my opponent ; though I am satisfied in my own 



x HISTORY OF THIS CONTROVERSY. 

mind that this was only the ostensible reason, and that 
the real reason was never given. My opinion has been 
from the first, that my rejoinder was submitted to my 
opponent for a reply, and he being unable to meet it, 
advised its suppression. I have good reasons for this 
opinion ; but I will allow the impartial reader to judge 
whether I misrepresented my reviewer's position or 
not. The article was subsequently sent to the Chris- 
tian Standard, however, and was published in full in 
that paper. 

As soon as the contradictory answers of the several 
clergymen were published, the discussion began in 
good earnest. All the religious journals of the coun- 
try gave it editorial notice, and many eloquent preach- 
ers made it the subject of especial discussion. 

At the time when* the interest in the subject was at 
its hight, and hundreds seemed anxious and were in- 
quiring more deeply into the matter, the managing 
editor of the Times allowed the subject to deteriorate 
into a discussion upon infidelity, — a subject in which 
few people, especially those of a religious turn < f 
mind, felt any interest whatever. This new departure 
failed to enlist the sympathies of the people or com- 
mand the attention of the clergy; and soon this re- 
ligious discussion was dropped from the pages of the 
Times. 

I very much regretted that it could not have been 
continued as it was originally begun, and yet, I have 
reason for believing that great good was accomplish- 
ed by it, notwithstanding its brevity. As soon as it 
was turned into an infidel channel, I withdrew from 
the controversy, and began to contribute to the col- 
umns of the Tribune. 



HISTORY OF THIS CONTROVERSY. xi 

The positions taken in my first article are so fully 
confirmed and established by the interviews and ser- 
mons which followed, that one is almost inclined to be- 
lieve, that it was written after these interviews were 
had, and after these sermons were delivered. Especial- 
ly does Mr. Moody say the very things I attributed to 
him in my original article. 

Such is the history of this polemic. May the Lord 
bless it in this new form ; and may it bring many who 
are wandering in darkness to a saving knowledge of 
the truth as it is in Jesus. 

This discussion shows very conclusively that the or- 
thodox world have wandered very far from ancient gos- 
pel simplicity. To bring back the primitive Gospel in 
all its beautiful simplicity is the only object that 
moved the author to this compilation. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ANCIENT AND MODERN 
u GOSPEL MEETINGS." 

To the Editor o/TJte Times: 

Having occasion to remain in Chicago for a few 
weeks, I took advantage of the opportunity to attend 
some of the so-called " Gospel Meetings," which are be- 
ing held in various parts of the city, especially at Far- 
well Hall, 

Why these meetings are called " Gospel Meetings " is 
entirely beyond my comprehension ; for they are neither 
based upon, conducted by, or in harmony with, the Gos- 
pel of Christ; and the end which they are supposed to 
subserve is in no sense of the word attained by them. 

Ostensibly, they are designed to enlighten those who 
are seeking the salvation of their souls; but actually, 
they darken counsel by the multitude of meaningless 
words that savor of the senseless jargon of Ashdod. 

I was both surprised and pained to observe the utter 
lack of Scriptural knowledge, and the profound ignor- 
ance of the Gospel plan of salvation which was too ap- 
parent lor concealment in all these pretended " Gospel 
Meetings." " When the blind lead the blind they must 
inevitably both fall into the ditch." 

(13) 



14 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

No person who is intelligent in the Scriptures of 
truth, or familiar with Apostolic Christianity, could at- 
tend these alleged " Gospel Meetings ' without observ- 
ing the marked contrast between them and the " Gospel 
Meetings " held anciently by the Apostles and early 
Christians. 

Does the Bible teach a definite plan of salvation? A 
plan that is simple, plain, and easily comprehended by 
.he common mind? Does it unfold in plain language 
man's duty to his God? In short, does it tell the poor 
sin-burdened sinner what he must do to secure the ple- 
iary remission of all his sins? Are there commands 
authoritatively offered in the Gospel, which, if faithfully 
obeyed, constitute those who thus obey them, accepta- 
ble children of God? or is the Bible a bundle of moral 
generalities, promiscuously thrown together, without 
any regard to logical, systematic, or philosophical ar- 
rangement? 

At first thought this may seem like a very strange 
question to propound to this enlightened Christian age; 
and yet, when we take a survey of the religious world, 
and note its Babel of confusion even upon the all-im- 
portant question of salvation, it does not seem so 
strange, after all. 

There are in the neighborhood of six hundred differ- 
ent religious beliefs taught and practiced among man- 
kind; and nothing could be more unlike than the doc- 
trines of salvation which these contending religious de- 
nominations are offering to the lost and ruined of our 
race. 

No two churches agree as to what constitutes a Scrip- 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 15 

tural plan of redemption. Every church has its own 
peculiar notions respecting the prerequisites to pardon ; 
and each one is condemning all others as anti-Scriptural 
and heterodox. 

I have sought in vain for a single idea connected with 
modern ecclesiastical doctrine on which all the churches 
are a unit. I must confess that after a most patient 
search through the denominational archives of Christ- 
endom, I fail to find one doctrine peculiar to Christian- 
ity on which there is even an approximate unity of sen- 
timent ; and these diversities of faiths do not relate in 
all instances to minor questions and unimportant doc- 
trines ; but the leading fundamental questions of theol- 
ogy — such as are said to be related most intimately to 
human salvation— are as often matters of controversy 
among Christians as the less important doctrines of the 
Bible. It cannot be expected that all men will agree 
on the secondary and unrevealed questions of eccle- 
siasticism; but they certainly ought not to differ on 
what has been clearly revealed, and on the belief of 
which is suspended the eternal and unchanging inter- 
est of the soul. 

It is but rational to believe that if the Bible is the 
revealed word of God (and I am not at all disposed to 
call the truth of this statement in question), and con- 
tains a definite plan of salvation for the belief of mor- 
tal man, that plan must be a unit, and not only a unit, 
but so plain that " none by comment could it plainer 
make," as Pollock has most aptly said. I think that 
there is not a recognized religious denomination in this 
country that professes to be 



16 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

GUIDED BY THE SACRED SCRIPTURES, 

but that believes and teaches that God has revealed • 
definite and clearly-defined plan of salvation; and yet 
no two churches teach the same plan. 

But I am told that the points of difference are unim- 
portant and secondary, and that on the great central, 
vital idea of salvation there is the most perfect agree- 
ment. I grant that it is very possible that as to the 
Pact of salvation there may be no important differences , 
out when we come to consider the means or conditions 
jpon which that salvation depends, their differances are 
as wide as the poles and as antagonistic as light and 
darkness. 

I presume the fact of these diversities of religious 
opinion will not be called in question by anyone, how- 
ever unimportant and trivial they may think them to 
te. The real question, however, that concerns us in 
this paper is: Has God revealed a definite plan of sal- 
vation? And if He has made such a revelation in clear 
and intelligible terms, what is it? What are its first 
and second steps, its preparatory and initiatory require- 
ments? If a man in deep anxiety asks, " What must I 
do to be saved?" there should be some positive answer 
to give to such an all-absorbing question. It will not 
do to turn him aside with some passing remark or 
evasive answer. The most sacred and solemn interests 
of both time and eternity are hanging upon the answer 
to this great life question ; the issues of life and* death 
are included within it; the possibilities and opportuni- 
ties of eternity are hinging upon it. Other and less im- 
portant questions may be evaded, or even a wrong an- 
swer given, without any serious injury to the one pro- 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 17 

pounding them, but when a man, under the awful con- 
viction that he is a lost and ruined soul, without God 
or without hope in the world, asks from the very depths 
of his sorrow-stricken heart, " What must I do to be 
saved?" the answer should be prompt, correct, and full 
in all its detail of duty and responsibility. 

One would naturally conclude from what he hears and 
sees in the " Gospel meetings " of Chicago, that God 
aad no clearly defined and plainly revealed plan of re- 
lemption adapted to all mankind, but that He im- 
provised a plan for each individual case and every 
conversion w r as mi generis. 

Go to any of those meetings held under the auspices 
of the Young Men's Christian Association, or to any 
conducted by the various orthodox churches of this city, 
and ask the all-important question : " What must I do 
to be saved?'' and I venture the assertion, based upon 
my past experience, that in no two instances would you 
receive the same answer, and in all reasonable proba- 
bility, a Gospel answer in none. 

If I have read the Scriptures aright, God has revealed 
in His precious word, a sublimely simple plan of salva- 
tion — anthromopolitan in its character; that is, adapted 
to every man, no matter where he lives, or what his 
social or moral condition. This divinely authorized 
plan of salvation contains definite and clearly estab- 
lished facts; simple and authoritative commands; soul- 
inspiring and heart-comforting promises; and severe, 
but just and awful threatenings. 

To believe these Gospel facts, and obey these Gospel 
commands, enables those who thus believe and obey to 
rejoice in the comforting influence of these Gosp >. 

(2) 



18 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

promises. To refuse to believe and obey these, is to 
read one's final doom in these awful Gospel warnings. 

I cannot better illustrate the manifest difference be- 
tween ancient and modern " Gospel meetings " and be- 
tween apostolic and orthodox teachings than to intro- 
duce to the reader an ideal seeker after truth. 

We will suppose then an honest young man becomes 
deeply interested in the question of his soul's salvation. 
His common sense teaches him that there must be some 
sort of a plan of salvation revealed in the Gospel. Un- 
der this impression he steps into Farwell Hall, while 
one of these modern " Gospel meetings " is in progress. 
At the first opportunity he arises and addresses the 
leader of the meeting thus : " I feel, and know, that I 
am a lost and ruined sinner, without hope and without 
God in the world ; I am ignorant of the Gospel of Christ, 
and of the way of life ; I have therefore come in here 
to ask a plain, simple question : * What must I do to 
be saved?' " The leader of the meeting says: "Young 
man, we are glad to see you, and will most willingly 
answer your question, and render you any other assist- 
ance in our power. You must ' come to Jesus.' He has 
said, 'jCome unto Me all you that labor and are heavy 
laden, and I will give you rest.' This is the first thing 
for you to do; just break away from the world, and 
come to Jesus." " But," says the young man, " I under- 
stand all that; but I don't know how to 'come to Jesus;' 
that is what I came in here to find out. What must I 
do? what steps must I take in order to 'come to Je- 
sus?'" Here he opens his Bible, which he has been 
reading almost constantly of late, and the first passage 
that meets his eye is the words of Jesus, which read as 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 19 

follows : " No man can come unto Me except the Fath- 
er which has sent Me draw him," " Here seems to be 
an insurmountable difficulty in the way of my coming 
to Christ," observes the young man. The leader of the 
meeting informs him he must not read the Bible to find 
difficulties ; but just " come to Jesus and make a com- 
plete surrender of himself." The young man retires 
from the meeting neither a wiser or happier man than 
when he entered. 

Such will be the answer in ninety -nine cases out of a 
hundred that humble, penitent, believers, will receive 
in the Chicago " Gospel meetings " when asking what 
they must do to be saved ! Such expressions as " come 
to Jesus ;" " Give up all for Jesus ;" " Put your trust in 
Jesus," with numberless others of a similar nature, 
are not only meaningless, but sentimentally absurd ; for 
they afford neither light or relief. They are exceeding- 
ly convenient expressions to hide one's ignorance of the 
plan of salvation. 

Having failed to find satisfactory instructions at the 
" Gospel meeting " at Farwell Hall, our ideal peni- 
tent turns his anxious feet towards Dr. Thomas' Church 
on the West Side. He knows Dr. Thomas to be a titled 
theologian of at least metropolitan lame. He is recog- 
nized as a teacher oi Divine things, and a Christian 
gentleman of conceded ability. 

He finds Dr. Thomas in his study; and after a for- 
mal introduction, informs the Dr. of the nature of his 
mission, by saying : " Dr. Thomas, I am in deep anxiety 
of mind in regard to my soul's salvation. I want to 
know in plain terms, what I must do to be saved? " 
The doctor takes him warmly by the hand, gives him 



20 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

the most cordial greeting, and says : " My Iriend, I 
shall be most happy to give you advice in regard to the 
matter that concerns you. 

" Have you given yourself to God in prayer? If not, 
you must pray to God earnestly for the pardon of all 
your sms." The young man opens his Bible, and his 
eye falls upon the following passage. " We know that 
God heareth not sinners, but if any man be a worshiper 
of God him he heareth." " I do not see," says the 
humble seeker after truth, " that praying will be of 
any avail in my case; certainly not at the present stag* 
ot my experience, because I am a sinner, and here I an* 
informed that God heareth not sinners. Being an alien, 
I am not supposed to be entitled to the privileges of a 
citizen of the kingdom. The right of petition be- 
longs, if I understand the principles on which all ra- 
tional governments are founded, to the citizen not to 
the alien. Now doctor, please tell me what I must do 
to get into the kingdom so that I shall have a legitimate 
right to pray. If your doctrine is true, then, most cer- 
tainly my case is a hopeless one ; for if prayer is the 
means of pardon, then tell me, if you can, what hope I 
have of obtaining the remission of my sins? If prayer 
is a condition of pardon, and God will not hear one 
who is not pardoned, what good will it do me to pray ? ' 

" Young man," observes the doctor, " you will never 
be converted to God, until you go to Him and bow 
humbly before Him in prayer, and give up all these 
doubts and perplexing questions." " But," interrupts 
the young man, " does God demand that in becoming a 
Christian I shall give up my reason, and violate His 
own revealed law? " The doctor dismisses him with a 



CONTRADICTIONS OP ORTHODOXY. 21 

kindly bow, and commends to his careful, prayerful 
perusal the Psalms of David, 

The young man in a state of mental bewilderment, 
goes out upon the street, saying down deep in his anx- 
ious heart: "Oh, that I knew where I might find him, 
I would order my cause before him, I would fill my 
mouth with arguments and know what he would ans- 
wer me." 

He continues to soliloquize : " I will go to Dr. 
Ryder's church; he is a learned and able divine of 
large experience, perhaps he can answer my question." 
He soon finds himself in the inspiring presence of the 
great Universalist clergyman. Dr. Ryder receives him- 
with his accustomed affability, and bids him take a 
seat. Our ideal here begins without any unnecessary 
exordium, and plunges into the very heart of the sub- 
ject which has given him so much mental anxiety, by 
sying: " Dr. Ryder, I called to ask you a simple 
question: I want to know what I must do to be 
saved? " The doctor smilingly remarked : " My dear 
young friend, you are not lost; you are in no danger at 
all ; modern exact thought has shown that the doctrine 
of future punishment is a heathen fable . Christ fixed 
your salvation beyond a peradventure when he died up- 
on the cross and became the propitiation for the sins of 
the whole world. Christ undertook the salvation of 
the whole human family, and he never fails in anything 
he attempts to do. Your fears are all unnecessary, and 
without reason, you have nothing whatever to do." 

The young man opens his Bible and reads the follow- 
ing passage : " He is the author of eternal salvation to 
all those icho obey Jrim" " Now doctor," continued our 



22 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

young friend, " you believe the Bible is the inspired 
word of God; how about those who do not obey Mm% " 
" Here by the way is another passage of the same sort," 
and he reads " Not every one that saith unto me Lord, 
Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of God ; but they 
that do His commandments." " Now, doctor, explain 
to me what commandments are here referred to, and 
what disposition the Lord will make with those who 
do not obey them? " The doctor in a good natured way, 
laughingly remarked, " I have not time to enter into an 
extended exegesis of these passages to-day, but you 
come and attend upon my public ministration for a few 
months, and I will thoroughly indoctrinate you with 
my ideas of theology." With which remark our -dis- 
appointed and downcast seeker after the gospel plan ot 
salvation, is bowed out of the room. As he walks 
along the street he is handed an announcement of a 
gospel meeting which is to be held on the West side. 
The meeting is to be under the personal management 
of Rev. Mr. Moody, the great evangelist. He says to 
himself; " how fortunate that this notice should have 
/alien into my hands at this time. I have heard of the 
great revivals, and the thousands of conversions that 
have followed this great teacher wherever he has gone. 
He is leading men to God all the time. He makes a 
specialty of converting sinners to God; certainly he 
will give me a consistent and a scriptural answer to my 
question. I will hasten to the meeting." He arrives at 
the church just as Mr. Moody is calling .or all who de- 
sire the prayers of God's people, to arise to their feet. 
He springs to his feet and addressing the great revival- 
ist says : " Mr. Moody, I have been trying to find out 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 23 

the way of salvation for several days, but I have made no 
material progress; I have therefore come to this meet- 
ing in the hope of finding light. I wish to ask a ques- 
tion of great importance, important at least to me. I un- 
derstand that salvation is conditional and that no man 
can be saved unless he obeys the gospel; for I read in 
my Bible that Christ when he comes the second time, 
he will take vengeance on all them that obeyed not the 
gospel of God. Now I want to know what the gospel 
is so that I can obey it ? In other words, I want to 
know what I must do in order to be saved ?" Mr. 
Moody says in reply : " Salvation is not dependent up- 
on anything that man can do; if it were, then man 
could save himself." " Well," interrupted the humble 
enquirer, " I have before me a passage of Scripture, the 
words of an inspired apostle, addressed to a crowd of 
anxious enquirers, which reads thus;" with which re- 
mark he reads from Acts 2:40; "Save yourselves from 
this untoward generation." "I mean to say, young mar, 
that you must seek the Lord with full purpose of heart," 
said Mr. Moody. " I did not know," replied the young 
man, " that the Lord had been lost. I supposed that I 
was the one that was lost, or am I to infer from, your 
* remarks, that God has gone off in some lonely, secluded 
place, far removed from the accustomed haunts of man- 
kind, and secreted himself, and that my business is to 
search in doubt and uncertainty till I find Him ?" "I 
see," says Mr. Moody, " you are disposed to be captious. 
You are looking for difficulties not salvation. You are 
not humble enough. When you get thoroughly imbu- 
ed with the spirit of humble contrition, you will 
throw these captious questions to the wind, and 



24 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

the Lord will then appear to you, and not till then." 

" I am humble enough," says our young friend, " to 
obey the gospel, if I only knew what obedience the gos- 
pel required. I am not humble enough to go blindly 
on, in a question of such vital moment as the eternal 
salvation of my undying soul. If you will only tell me 
what the gospel is, I will try and obey it : if you will 
make known to me the conditions of salvation, I will 
bow in humble and unreserved obedience to each and 
every one of them." 

The great preacher simply says, in reply to this ear- 
nest demand for gospel light and knowledge : " There 
is no hope for you, young man, unless the grace of God 
gets hold of your heart." " Well," says the young en- 
quirer, almost inaudibly, " I hope, if it does get hold of 
my heart, that it will be an enlightening grace." 

At the request of Mr. Moody, they proceed to pray for 
the enlightenment and conversion of this young man 
who is wandering in the " blackness and gloom of ig- 
norance and sin." 

The meeting closes, and our friend, discouraged, al- 
most disgusted with the senseless, meaningless plati- 
tudes of the so-called " orthodox churches," goes home 
to read and ponder upon the darkness, uncertainty and 
mystery that surrounds the way of life, and the plan of 
salvation. 

This young man is now in a fine condition of mind to 
attend one of Bob. IngersolPs " gospel meetings." The 
churches have prepared him for the reception of the 
boldest, most negative, as well as most daring, infidel- 
ity. Thousands who to-day are avowed skeptics, and 
defiant defamers of the Bible, have traveled over the 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 25 

came route, — a route which as certainly leads to skepti- 
cism,* if persistently followed, as the gospel leads to life 
and peace, when faithfully and intelligently obeyed. 

The hero of our article, is about to despair of ever 
finding any clear, rational or scriptural answer to his 
honest, earnest question ; and while in this half doubt- 
ing mood, he steps into a little church on Indiana-ave. 
The preacher is a young man without title, or even 
metropolitan fame; but he is an earnest advocate of 
primitive Christianity : a zealous defender of the faith 
once delivered to the saints. He has no sympathy with 
modern orthodoxy. He holds to no creed but the Bible. 
He has no formal confession of faith, other than that 
made by Christ himself. 

Our young friend enters the vestibule, and is there 
kindly received, and shown to a seat near the pulpit. 
The preacher arises and announces as his text, Acts 16: 
30, — " What must I do to be saved?" The new listener 
is all eyes and ears. He leans forward, anxious to catch 
every word that falls from the lips of the gospel preach- 
er. This is the subject over which he has worried and 
wept. And now he is to hear it di scanted upon from 
the sacred desk, and from a Bible standpoint. He for- 
gets, in his raptures and eagerness for truth, where he 
i>, and who is about him. Oblivious of all surround- 
ings, he pays profound attention to every word. His 
interest increases from the first sentence; light and truth 
begin to break in upon his soul, as the mists of doubt 
are being rapidly dissipated. 

The preacher's manner is calm, earnest and conversa- 
tional, and remarkable for its beautiful simplicity. 

He begins by saying : " This being a Bible question, 



26 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

nothing short of a Bible answer will suffice. No man 
has a right to answer this question in the light of hu- 
man creeds, or on his own responsibility. The Bible 
answers it, and that answer must be received as final 
and authoritative. All answers not consistent with the 
Bible answer, must be rejected as false. There is only 
one book in all the sixty-six that compose the divine 
volume, which furnishes us an answer to this question. " 

The young man says to himself: " That must be the 
book of Psalms, for that is the one Dr. Thomas told me 
to read." 

The preacher proceeds by saying: "That book is 
the Acts of the Apostles. It is the book of conversions. 
It contains the history of all early ' gospel meetings ' 
held by the Apostles, and records the conversion of no 
less than fifteen thousand souls. 

"This question was most always asked at these an- 
cient 'gospel meetings,' and those asking it, always, 
without a single exception, received a correct and di- 
vinely authorized answer. The first ' gospel meeting ' 
ever held was held at Jerusalem, and was led by Peter 
the Apostle, and on that occasion, three thousand 
cried out, 'What must we do to be saved?' What 
did Peter say to these anxious enquirers? Did he say, 
in the language of our modern 'gospel meeting' 
leaders, 'come to Jesus,' 'give up all for Christ,' 'seek 
the Lord,' 'pray for pardon.' Not one word did the 
apostle say of this sort. Note his answer; it is plain, 
simple, and easily obeyed. It is found in Acts 2 : 38." 
Our young man almost arose to his fee£ as the preacher 
began to read: 'Repent, and be baptized, every one of 
yon, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of 



CONTRADICTIONS OP ORTHODOXY. 27 

sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.' 

"Paul and Silas held a 'gospel meeting ' in a jail at 
Philippi. Paul was the Moody of the occasion, and 
Silas the Sankey. The jailor, being satisfied from what 
he saw and heard, that there was something divine in 
their midnight songs, sprang in and asked, c What must 
I do to be saved? ' 

" Paul knowing him to be an unbeliever, said, ' Be- 
lieve on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. 7 
But the jailor did not know what to believe; for he had 
never heard the gospel ; and Paul remembering that no 
man could believe in what he had never heard, preached 
Jesus to him and his household ; and before morning 
they were all baptized. 

"The next case where this question was asked, and an- 
swered was in Paul's conversion. The great apostle 
had to ask this question ; and when he heard the answer 
he arose and obeyed without a word. 

" Christ appeared to Paul, not to convert him ; but he 
appeared to him to make him a witness and an apostle. 
Paul asked when convinced that Jesus was the Christ : 
4 What wilt thou have me to do?' Christ sent him to 
a preacher who was holding gospel meetings at Damas- 
cus, for his answer. Hear what the preacher said to 
him. Did he say, you must ' come to Jesus ' ; give up 
all for Jesus; 'make a complete surrender to God? 7 
No, none ot this ; but he said : \ Saul, Saul, why tar- 
riest thou? Arise and be baptized and wash away thy 
sins calling on the name of the Lord.' 

"Then Paul arose, and when he was baptized he 
went to holding gospel meetings in the synagogues; 
but not before he had been baptized, as some of our 



28 * CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

modern teachers of religion have done, and are still 
doing. 

" Thus you will see," says the preacher, "that practi- 
cally the answer was the same in each case, at Jeru- 
salem, Philippi, and at Damascus. The obedience in 
each case begun in faith, continued in repentance, and 
closed with baptism. 

" So it was with the whole fifteen thousand conver- 
sions, the history of which is found in the Acts of the 
Apostles. Every one heard the gospel, believed in it, 
repented, and were baptized for the remission of sins ; 
and this simple, yet sublime, and beautiful procedure 
constituted them the children of God. There was no 
seeking the Lord in doubts and fears, in darkness and 
uncertainty; but when one asked what he must do to 
be saved, he was told in simple terms, and if he was 
sincere, he arose without question or quibble and 
rendered the required obedience." 

The preacher closed his clear gospel sermon with 
a feeling exhortation and a kind gospel invitation, and 
said : " If there is one anxious soul here to-night who 
wishes to make a start towards heaven and immortal 
glory, let .him come forward while we sing." 

The congregation then arose and began to sing : 

" This is the way I long have sought, 
And mourned because I found it not." 

Before the first stanza was completed our young 
friend, who was enraptured with the sermon — with its 
plainness, simplicity, and its manifest truthfulness, 
walked with hastening steps down the aisle, with his 
eyes full of tears, and his heart full ot genuine joys. 
When the song was concluded, he said : " I have heard 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 29 

the gospel for the first time in my life, to-night, and I 
believe it with all my heart, and I do sincerely repent 
of all my sins, and now I am ready to be baptized in 
obedience to the divine command." And in the 
presence of God, angels and men, the preacher leads 
him down into the water and baptizes him. They 
come up out of the water, and as the young man stands 
upon the borders of the baptistery, dripping with the 
waters of immersion, a smile of heavenly joy lights up 
his fair young face, he clasps his hands, lifts up his 
eyes and heart to God, and says: 

" My Father, hear my prayer, and keep me faithful 
unto thy coming." 

In conclusion let me ask, " Why is baptism excluded 
from all these modern 'gospel meetings 1 ?" It was a 
prominent and important feature in the " gospel meet- 
ings " held by the Apostles and Christians. Has the 
law making it a condition of pardon been repealed? 
If not, then why discard it? 

Methinks I hear some of those juvenile teachers of 
religion from Farwell Hall exclaim in astonishment, 
" What ! baptism a saving ordinance ? Absurd and 
impossible !" 

I have only to say that Peter, an inspired apostle* 
said: "Baptism doeth also now save us." 

Gentle reader, let us return to primitive Christianity, 
t > apostolic methods and plans, and let us restore the 
primitive " gospel meetings ; " then may we hope to 
see Zion triumph over all her foes, and shine in the 
beauty and loveliness of her bridal garments. Then 
will infidelity with its cheerlessness and gloom disap- 
pear before the conquering power of divine truth. 



30 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

The pure, primitive gospel, as it came from its 
divine author, is the only cure for infidelity. But a 
perverted gospel is the soil of all others most adapted 
to its growth. 

When the Great Master shall pass final judgment 
upon his church, before crowning her with the laurels 
of eternal honor, he will say : " Thou hast held fast my 
word and not denied my name, enter thou into thine 
eternal rest." 



Before publishing the above article the reporter for 
The Times interviewed the following clergymen, and 
also submitted my communication to a pretended 
theological expert for examination and review. Below 
will be found the interviews, which amply confirm the 
truth of my article, and also the attempted review of 
the apostolic answers as given in my article: 



CHAPTER II. 



WHAT THE DIVINES SAY. 



The theologian of The Sunday Times was surprised to 
learn from the preceding letter that the Protestant 
churches were, with one exception, at sea regarding the 
answer to the question, "What must I do to be saved?" 
that they could not even agree in their errors, and that 
their ministers were so unfamiliar with the New Testa- 
ment that they had no idea of what Christ and the 
apostles used to tell enquirers after salvation. Fearing 
that some mistake had been made, he consulted in 
regard to this matter Canon Knowles, of the cathedral 
of SS Peter and Paul; Prof. Francis L. Patton, D. D., 
L. L. D., professor of theology in the Presbyterian 
Theological Seminary; the Rev. W. C. Willing, D. D., 
presiding elder of the Chicago district of the Methodist 
Episcopal church; the Rev. Dr. John Peddie, of the 
Second Baptist church; the Rev. F. A. Noble, D. D., of 
the Union Park Congregational church, and the Rev. 
W. H. Ryder, D. D., of St. Paul's Universalist church. 
Beside these, as representatives of six ecclesiastical 
bodies, he consulted Dr. H. W. Thomas, of Centenary 
Methodist church, because the author of the above let 
ter indicated him, and Mr. Hemingway, general secre- 
tary of the Young Men's Christian Association, as a 
substitute for Brother Moody, referred to in the letter, 
but who is not in town. Their answers to the question, 
(31) 



32 CONTRADICTIONS OP ORTHODOXY. 

"What must I do to be saved?" are herewith given. 

THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL ANSWER. 

" If a man should ask you, Canon Knowles, what he 
must do to be saved, what answer would you give?" 

" I should inquire first what the man's condition was. 
If he was a heathen I should say, ' Repent and be bap- 
tized.' That is what the Scriptures say?" 

" Suppose he wasn't a heathen?" 

" Then he would be a Christian. I divide all men 
into the two classes. If a man has been baptized into 
the church no act of his own can put him out." 

" But may not irreligion or sin put him outside the 
pale of salvation?" 

" Sin persisted in would of course endanger his sal- 
vation, but I wouldn't undertake to say how much 
irregularity or sin would put him outside of salvation. 
The mercies of God are ever at work for the salvation 
ot souls. To one outside the church I should say, 
4 Repent and be baptized.' Those who are in the church 
need the constant exercise of the pardoning power of 
God, and the church aids them to procure that by the 
general confession, the communion service, the absolu- 
tion of the priest in public and in private, and in many 
other ways. The church exists for the purpose of sav- 
ing sinners, not saints." 

" Repentance and baptism comprehend belief in 
Christ? " 

" Of course." 

"And baptism is a condition of salvation?" 

" Certainly." 

"A person who in infancy was baptized into the 
church you would not re-bapti'ze, would you?" 

" Not at all." 






CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. od 

THE PRESBYTERIAN ANSWER. 

" Prof. Patton, what answer would you give, in the 
most succinct form to the question, 4 What must I do to 
be saved?' " 

" You will probably find a good deal of reluctance 
on the part of ministers to give a short, specific answer 
to that question, because of the difficulty of determin- 
ing exactly what is the minimum quid. There are 
many things a man ought to do. To say just what is 
the very least that he must do to be saved is a very 
delicate matter. If I were called on to answer that 
question in the briefest form I should say that the con- 
dition of salvation was belief in Jesus Christ as a divine 
Saviour and sacrifice. " 

"Does that involve repentance?'' 

"Certainly. A man can not effectually believe in 
Christ as his sacrifice and Saviour unless he has become 
heartily penitent for his sins." 

"Does it involve baptism ?" 

" No. We do not hold that baptism is a condition 
of salvation." 

" Is confession of Christ before men the essential ele- 
ment of baptism?" 

" Yes. In days of the apostles baptism was the act 
by which converts publicly gave in tbeir adhesion to 
the cause of Christ. The apostles commanded the 
heathen to repent and be baptized, just as a Presby- 
terian minister now commands the heathen among 
whom he labors. But here we are preaching to people 
who lor the most pait have been baptized and brought 
up amid Christian influences, and who do not deny the 
truths of the gospel. To them our form of address 

3 



34 CONTRADICTIONS OF OETHODOXY. 

must be different. Much error has resulted from the 
failure to bear in mind that a pastor of to-day addresses 
an audience very different from that which the apostles 
addressed. 

" In the Presbyterian church we make distinction 
between orthodoxy and salvation. We require our 
ministers to be orthodox, but we do not make that 
requirement of lay candidates for admission to the 
church. Of them we can only demand that faith in the 
Lord Jesus Christ as a divine Sayiour, which involves 
repentance and an amendment of life. On the other 
hand, Congregationalists require from every candidate 
for admission to the church a subscription to the whole 
creed." 

THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL ANSWER. 

"To answer the question in a few words," said the 
Rev. W. C. Willing, presiding elder of this Methodist 
Episcopal district, " is a little difficult because much 
depends on the particular sense in which certain 
theological phrases are used. Our standard of faith 
gives no categorical answer to this question, and of 
course much depends on the precise moment at which 
salvation is assumed to take place. Conversion was 
regarded as the culmination of a spiritual process 
which we call regeneration, because Christ said to 
Nicodemus, 'Ye must be born again.' To put the 
thing in its shortest form I should say that the condi- 
tion of salvation was to believe in the Lord Jesus 
Christ." 

" Does that include the idea of repentance?" 

"Yes, as the greater includes the less." 



CONTRADICTIONS OP ORTHODOXY. 35 

" Does it include the idea of baptism ?" 

" No; I should say that baptism was not a condition 
of salvation. We speak of it in theological language 
as the outward sign of an inward grace. It is a duty 
to perform, but it is not a condition of salvation, and 
we should not say of an unbaptized person that he 
could not be saved." 

"Was the essential element ot the baptism coupled 
with repentance by the apostles the public confession of 
faith in Christ?" 

" Yes, it was just that." 

" What is the condition of salvation, Dr. Thomas?" 

"The subject is a very broad one; it has many 
aspects. A brief answer can not be very complete. I 
should say that repentance was the one great condition. 
All through the Bible you will find pardon offered 
freely to all who will turn from sin and turn to the 
Lord." 

"Do you regard belief in Christ as a condition?" 

" Well, yes ; using the phrase in a very broad way, 
and meaning by it belief in all that goodness of which 
Christ is the personification. I wouldn't like to say 
that salvation depended upon the possession of per- 
fectly orthodox opinions regarding Christ. The fact is 
we are saved by character. A man is saved as his 
character is reformed. The condition of salvation is 
the turning away from evil and the turning toward 
good." 

" Is baptism a condition of salvation?" 

" No. Y 'U see in the days of the early church the 
Christians were all recruited from the heathen and the 
Jews This ceremony of baptism was the public 



36 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

renunciation of the old faith and the public adoption 
of the new one. When the apostle told the inquirers 
before him to 'Repent and be baptized,' he offered 
repentance as the condition of salvation, and baptism 
as the public act indicative of the inward change — the 
pledge or evidence of the penitent's sincerity." 

THE BAPTIST ANSWER. 

"I wish, Dr. Peddie, that you would answer in the 
briefest way the question, 'What must I do to be 
saved? 7 " 

" I don't know that I can answer it briefly better 
than to quote the answer of the apostle, 'Believe in the 
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved?" 

"Does that statement cover repentance?" 

" Yes ; the belief in the Lord Jesus Christ, which is 
stated as the sole condition of salvation, involves the 
idea of repentance for sins." 

"Does it cover baptism?" 

"No." 

"Is not baptism a condition of salvation?" 

" No. Baptism is a duty obligatory on the believer, 
but it is not a condition of salvation. I should not 
regard a person as qualified to be baptized until he had 
become regenerate and received the divine pardon. 
Baptism must occur after and not before the new 
birth." 

THE CONGREGATIONAL ANSWER. 

" If a man should come to you, Dr. Noble, and ask 
what he must do to be saved, as a Congregational min- 
ister what answer should you give him?" 

4 ' Ishould say first, in the language of Paul to the jailer 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 37 

at Philippi, 4 Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou 
shalt be saved.' I should say to him next in the language 
of Jesus to Nicodernus, ' Except a man be born again 
he cannot see the kingdom of heaven.' And third, I 
should say to him in the language of James, ' Faith 
without works is dead.' In other words, the condition 
of salvation is that kind of belief in Jesus Christ which 
authenticates itself in repentance for the past and in an 
amendment of life for the future. That is what I am 
in the habit of preaching.'' 

"Do you regard baptism as a condition of salvation?" 
" No. The penitent thief upon the cross was saved 
but he was never baptized. Baptism is an act of devo- 
tion to God, and a public confession. It is not a 
condition of the divine pardon. To make a public 
profession of religion is a duty which in a general way 
is obligatory on all, but there are persons who have 
unquestionably received the divine pardon who are not 
church members. Some adequate cause has prevented 
their uniting." 

THE UNIVERSAIilST ANSWER. 

To the question of the reporter Dr. Ryder replied as 
follows : 

"The words 'save,' 'saved,' 'salvation,' are very 
frequently employed in the New Testament, and they 
do not always have the same specific meaning. It is, 
however, substantially correct to say that ' salvation in 
Christ,' in the New Testament sense of the term, is 
deliverance from sin. In Matthew i. 21, it is said: 
4 His name shall be called Jesus, for He shall save His 
people from their sins.' This is the primary purpose of 
salvation. But salvation in Christ also includes the 



38 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

remission of that part of the general consequences of 
sin properly termed punishment. When one is saved 
he is said to be forgiven. This forgiveness is in Chris f # 
The end of salvation is holiness, or perfection ; but those 
who accept Christ as their spiritual head, and are born 
into the new life of the spirit, are, in Scripture phrase, 
4 saved, 1 even though they have not attained to moral 
perfection. If, then, I was to put my answer to the 
question, What is salvation in Christ? into a single sen- 
tence, it would be about this : It is deliverance from 
the sins and limitations of this life, and union with the 
spiritual perfection of God, and this result is effected 
both by what is done for us in the sacrifice of Christ, 
and by what we do for ourselves in a life of obedience." 

THE CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION ANSWER. 

" What do you regard, Mr. Hemingway, as the con- 
ditions of salvation, expressed in the briefest form?" 

" Belief on the Lord Jesus Christ." 

"That includes the idea of repentance?" 

" Yes." 

"And is baptism a condition of salvation?" 

" No, I should say it was not. Some form of public 
confession of Christ has always been enjoined on con- 
verts, and that seems to have been the purport of 
baptism after repentance." 

"Is it a fact that, among the various Protestant 
churches, there is no agreement regarding the con- 
ditions?" 

" I should decidedly say that that was not the fact. 
In our association work, representatives of the various 
churches co-operate heartily, doing the same work in 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 39 

the same way. It would certainly be apparent if there 
was a disagreement." 



APOSTOLIC ANSWERS ANALYZED. 

To the Editor. 

The letter of A. M. C. which you have permitted to 
be read," proves that Christ and his apostles radically 
disagreed on the subject of salvation, by the same pro- 
cess that it proves such disagreement among the differ- 
ent churches The writer's charge of disagreement is 
based upon the assumed fact that a young man, anxious 
about his soul's welfare, would get a different answer 
from every minister to whom he asked what he must do 
to obtain divine pardon. I say the assumed fact, be- 
cause he puts answers in the mouths of sundry elergy- 
men, indicated by initials, and of course those clergy- 
men cannot be tried for statements made for them, even 
if those statements happen to be correct. But suppose 
that the answers that A. M. C.'s suppositious inquirer 
gets from the different ministers are the answers that a 
real inquirer would get from them, this proves nothing, 
or it proves that Christ and the apostles equally dis- 
agreed, for they gave different answers to different in- 
quirers, adapting the answer in each case to the inquirer. 
If a dozen physicians prescribed for a dozen fever pa- 
tients, or even for the same one, they would not pre- 
scribe exactly alike. But this would not prove that 
they knew nothing about fever. Cases of fever differ 
infinitely, and diagnosis must differ correspondingly. 
As physicians possess only finite powers, their diagnoses 



40 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

are liable to vary somewhat, even of the same case. If 
bodily ailments are so complicated that 

SPECIFICS ARE RARELY EFFICACIOUS, 

how can we expect to find a specific for a soul diseased, 
with all its complications, and with the obscurity en- 
shrouding many of its symptoms? 

The New Testament is not like a volume of the 
Revised Statutes, in which each section is a complete 
treatise on some one subject. It is a collection of 
histories and letters, rarely treating any subject ab- 
stractly, but dealing directly with the cases in hand. 
It resembles a physician's diary rather than a treatise 
on medicine. In it we find the prescriptions of divinely 
inspired physicians for particular cases of moral mal- 
ady, and they are of no use to us unless we understand 
the diagnoses on which they are based. 

When the young man mentioned in the tenth chapter 
of Mark came to Jesus and asked, " What shall I do 
that I may inherit eternal life?" he was not told 
to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and 
be baptized. The two latter were not commanded till 
after the resurrection, and, while no man is exempted 
by his own holiness from the obligation to repent, yet 
a general exhortation to repentance would have been 
unintelligible to the young man who was conscious of 
having lived a blameless life, and who could say truth- 
fully that all the commandments he had kept from his 
youth up. But the divine physician saw that the young 
man's heart was 

SET ON HIS WEALTH. 

This must be changed before he could inherit eternal 
life, and he was told to "sell all that he had and give 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 41 

to the poor." This does not mean that impoverishing 
one's self is the universal condition of salvation, but 
that it was the condition in the case of this money- 
loving young man. 

When (see John iii) Nicodemus came to Jesus for 
simjlar information, he was not told to give away his 
property, for avarice was not his most prominent symp- 
tom. He was a ruler in Israel. His belief and his life 
were correct, but he was relying on his faithful per- 
formance of the Jewish ritual for salvation. He was 
told that he must be born again, that is, obtain a new 
and heavenly nature. This may be termed the psycho- 
logical aspect of the case. 

When the multitudes whom 'Peter charged in the 
most direct manner with participation in the crucifixion 
of Christ cried out, "What shall we do?" Peter most 
appropriately replied, not that they should give their 
property to the poor, or that they should be born again 
(a command they would not have understood), but 
" repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name 
of Je3us Christ." * The salient point in their case was 
their 

WILLFUL REJECTION 

of the Saviour, and they were commanded to repent of 
this, and to do it openly before men, as openly as they 
had rejected him. 

In the eighth chapter of Acts we read of Simon the 
sorcerer that he believed and was baptized. But sub- 
sequently he committed the sin that has since born his 
name. Peter did not again exhort him to belief on the 
Lord Jesus Christ and to be baptized, but he said, " Thy 

*Kaklem omits, " for the remission of sins." Why not quote it 
as it reads in the New Testament? 



42 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent, there- 
fore, of this thy wickedness." 

When Saul saw the bright light on his way to Damas- 
cus and cried out, " Lord, what wilt thou have me to 
do?" he was not commanded either to repent or to 
believe on Christ, for his question showed that he iiad 
done both.* He was not told to be baptized. Having 
repented, he was quite certain to enter the church by 
that ordinance. 

Cornelius was an officer in the Roman army, doubt- 
less brought up a pagan. To what extent he had ceased 
to be a pagan when God heard his prayers we are not 
told, but we are told that he sought heavenly guidance 
and did good among men, and for that his prayers were 
heard, and having done his best with what light he had, 
more light was sent him, through Peter. This taught 
Peter that, " In every nation he that feareth Him (God) 

AND WORKETH RIGHTEOUSNESS, 

is accepted with Him," even in advance of belief in 
Christ and baptism. Peter's sermon to Cornelius was 
not a sermon on repentance, for Cornelius was evidently 
leading a conscientious life ; but it was a sermon on 
belief in Christ, a theme appropriately selected in view 
of the pagan education of Cornelius. Peter said : " Can 
any man forbid water that these should not be bap- 
tized which have received the Holy Ghost?" showing 
that the supremest of spiritual blessings was received 
before baptism was even spoken of. 

The jailer at Philippi came to Paul and Silas exclaim- 
ing: " What must I do to be saved? " and he was an- 
swered : " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou 

* He was told to be baptized, and that is all he was told. 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 43 

shalt be saved." He was not told to repent, for his 
question implied that he had repented. Impenitent 
persons are not very anxious about their salvation. 
But he was told to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, 
and he did so. He was baptized afterward, and his 
whole household with him, of whose repentance there 
is no record. When the multitude at Pentecost asked 
what they must do, they made a general inquiry relat- 
ing to their immediate duty, and they were commanded 
to be baptized. But the jailer only asked for the most 
simple and primary conditions of salvation, and bap- 
tism was 'not included in the reply of the apostles. 

When Paul uttered his solemn farewell words to the 
Christians of Ephesus, he summed up 

THE WHOLE OF HIS PREACHING 

in the two points of repentance and belief in Christ ; 
he did not mention baptism. Yet he said he had 
declared the whole counsel of God in this matter. His 
words were : 

And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, 
but have showed you and have taught you publicly, and 
from house to house, testifying both to the Jews and also to 
the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord 
Jesus Christ. — Acts xx:20, 21. 

I am pure from the blood of all men, for I have not shunned 
to declare unto you all the counsel of God. — Acts xx:26, 27. 

A. M. C. says: "I have sought in vain for a single 
idea connected with modern ecclesiastical doctrines on 
which all the churches are a unit." The truth that is 
taught by one church is not invalidated by the fact 
that some other church does not think it. Regarding 
liberal theology I am not sufficiently familiar to speak, 
but the Roman Catholic and all the orthodox Protest- 



44 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

ant churches are a unit in this: that all men have 
sinned and fallen short of the performance of their 
whole duty ; that they are, therefore, even the best of 
them, under condemnation ; that to escape sin in this 
life and the punishment of sin beyond the grave, 

THERE MUST BE A REPENTANCE 

which involves a turning from sin ; there must be a faith 
in the divine Saviour that involves a love of goodness, 
and a constant effort to attain to it; and that it is the 
duty of every man who has repented and received 
divine pardon to confess his Redeemer before men, and 
to co - operate with that divine yet human agency, 
Christ's church. In other words, a wicked or an irreli- 
gious man is disloyal to his sovereign, and amnesty can 
be obtained by repentance, in regard to the quality of 
which the Almighty can never be deceived, and by 
taking the oath of allegiance (the very meaning of 
sacrament) in open court, and keeping it like an hon- 
orable man. 

Regarding tests and methods, and theological expla- 
nations, there are many differences. But this belief in 
man's siniulness, in Christ as the one who leads men to 
repentance, in the general conditions of pardon, is 
common to Christendom. From one end of the Bible 
to the other there is one constant appeal to men to turn 
from sin and disloyalty to God, to righteousness and 
loyalty to God, and again and again is full par- 
don offered to all who will repent of sin, and 
strive faithfully to work righteousness. Through all 
Scripture rings the command and question, "Repent, 
for why will ye die? " and substantially all the churches 
of Christendom, in different tones and phrases, and 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 45 

with various degrees of efficiency, are repeating that 
call of God to man, while a few well-meaning people^ 
arrogating to their organization exclusively the name 
of " Christian," implying the paganism of all followers 
of Christ that do not also follow Campbell, see no har- 
mony of doctrine, and hear no Scriptural preaching r 
except when they are told to be immersed as soon as 
they repent, as a sine qua non of receiving the pardon 
of the Almighty. Kaklem. 



THE FOLLOWING IS MY REPLY TO KAKLEM. 
WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SAVED. 
To the Editor. 

In your issue of January 4th you publish in connec- 
tion with my article on, w Does the Bible Teach a Defi- 
nite Plan ot Salvation"? " a series of very amusing, if 
not interesting, interviews with several leading divines 
of Chicago, upon the subject matter of my article, viz: 
"What must a sinner do to be saved? " 

A careful reading of those interviews, and a critical 
examination of each answer given to the confessedly 
important question, " What must I do to be saved? n 
discovers the fact that the position taken and defended 
in my communication was substantially correct. 

In fact the theologian of the f l imes practically ex- 
emplified the undeniable truth of what I had said. It 
was tantamount to a positive demonstration of its- 
correctness, and satisfied me, more than anything else 
could have done, that in saying what I did in regard 
to a diversity of answers being given by the different 
so-called orthodox churches to the honest inquiries of 



4G CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY, 

an anxious seeker after salvation, I was guilty of neither 
perversion nor exaggeration; but on the contrary, I 
stated what is daily transpiring throughout Christen- 
dom. I said in my first letter to the Times that there 
was no harmony among the recognized orthodox 
churches in regard to the conditions of salvation. 
I now repeat it with emphasis, and offer in evi- 
dence the experience of the theologian of the Sun- 
day Times, which is nothing more nor less than a dem- 
onstration of its truthfulness, for he waited personally 
upon the leading representative men of the several or- 
thodox churches of Chicago, and propounded to each 
the question, "What must I do to be saved?" and re- 
ceived not only different, but in some instances contra- 
dictory answers. 

Let the reader examine the answers in question, and 
see if the above is not substantiated by the facts in the 
case. 

The first divine that was interrogated was Canon 

Knowles, of the Episcopal church. When asked, " Is 
baptism a condition of salvation?" he emphatically 
answered : " Certainly it is." 

Dr. H. W. Thomas, of Centenary Methodist church, 
was asked the same question and in the same terms, 
viz, " Is baptism a condition of salvation?" To which 
the learned divine answered with characteristic empha- 
sis: "No, it is not." 

I would like the readers of the Sunday Times to an- 
swer this question. Which one of these two orthodox 
(?) divines is right? It is a moral certainty that they 

can't both be right. 

But this is not the only point of difference between 
these learned leaders of the blind, these instructors of 
the ignorant and unlearned. 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 47 

Prof. Patton, D. D., L. L. D., when asked the ques- 
tion : " What must I do to be saved? " in simple terms, 
gave an extended evasive circumlocution, and wound up 
with the following : " It I was called on to answer 
that question in the briefest form, I should say that the 
condition of salvation was beliet in Jesus Christ as a 
divine Saviour and sacrifice.'" 

Xow will the patient reader of the Sunday Times 
please compare this answer with the answer of Dr. H. 
W. Thomas. 

The reporter said : " Dr. Thomas, what are the con- 
ditions of salvation?" To which the popular clergy- 
man replied : "I should say that repentance was the 
one great condition." When asked further in regard 
to the value and importance of faith or belief as a 
condition of salvation he said : " I wouldn't like to 
say that salvation depended upon the possession of 
perfectly orthodox opinions regarding Christ. The 
fact is, we are saved by character." 

Nothing could be more contradictory than these two 
answers. 

The first answer makes a perfectly orthodox opinion 
of, or faith in Christ the all-important condition of sal- 
vation, while the second positively asserts that a per- 
fectly orthodox opinion regarding Christ is not essen- 
tial to salvation. 

More than this, Dr. Patton's answer makes faith the 
imperative and all-important requirement in order to 
salvation, while Dr. Thomas' reply makes repentance 
the one great condition ; and in his subsequent remarks 
he speaks of faith in an indifferent way, as being only 
remotely or indirectly connected with salvation ; and 



48 CONTRADICTIONS OP ORTHODOXY. 

iinally winds up with the idea that it is neither faith 
nor repentance that is of any value as a saving condi- 
tion, but character. 

It requires more theological lore and hermeneutical 
acumen than belong to the average of mankind to rec- 
oncile the manifestly contradictory doctrines of these 
eminent orthodox divines. I am compelled to treat 
it as a conundrum, and " give it up." 

Let us notice another palpable difference of opinion 
between these eminent ecclesiastical representatives : 

Each with a single exception, stated that faith was 
the all-important and insuperable condition of pardon ; 
but when we came to Dr. Ryder, the great Universalist 
divine he gives a double-duplex dissertation on theolo- 
gy, which would puzzle the wits of a French lawyer to 
unravel, and then jumping clear over faith, repentance, 
baptism, and everything else, he gives the most 
thoroughly evasive answer that could be framed out of 
the ecclesiastical nomenclature of Christendom. 

His very answer is a flat denial of his own cherished 
doctrine of universal salvation. • His answer is simply 
this : " We are saved by what Christ has done for us, 
and by what we do for ourselves in a life of obedience." 
But I would like to ask the reverend gentleman, what 
if we do not render a life of obedience, then what 
becomes of this salvation problem? This is tantamount to 
an acknowledgment that salvation is conditional, 
which position is in direct antagonism to the pleasing 
doctrine of universal salvation . 

The learned doctor preaches from his pulpit that all 
mankind will be made eternally holy and happy 
independent of all and any conditions; but when 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 49 

pressed for an answer to the Bible question : " What 
must I do to be saved? n he turns a complete theolog- 
ical summersault, and makes the confession that sal- 
vation is in part, at least, dependent on a " life of obe- 
dience." 

From the foregoing facts it is evident that my orig- 
inal proposition remains uncontradicted; yes, more 
than that, its truths practically verified and incontro- 
vertibly established. 

Now I want to show the readers of the Sunday 
Times that several of these Chicago divines flatly con- 
tradict, not only one another, but Christ himself. 

Several of them, perhaps all except one were asked: 
" Is baptism a condition of salvation?" to which they 
uniformally answered, without qualification, emphatic- 
ally "No.". On this point, at least, if upon no other, 
they are a unit. In their opposition to baptism— their 
unconcealed aversion to this divine command — they are 
ready to form a heterogeneous union. 

Now let us compare their negative answer to the 
question, " Is baptism a condition of salvation?" with 
Christ's own sayings. 

When Christ gave his last commission to his apostles, 
which commission was to contain the conditions of 
salvation, and which no man on the earth has a right 
to alter, modify, or amend in either its spirit or its let- 
ter, He said : " Go into all the world, and preach the 
gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is 
baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall 
be damned." 

I fancy I hear some of these great theological lumin- 
aries reply as follows : " But Christ don't say, he that 

4 



50 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

is not baptized shall be damned, but ' he that believeth 
not shall be damned.' " 

I freely grant that Christ does not say that the un- 
baptized shall be damned in just so many words; nev- 
ertheless, a fair and candid interpretation of the words 
imply as much. 

In the gospel plan faith preceeds baptism, and the 
value of the ordinance is dependent upon a genuine 
faith in Christ. No place in all the Bible are unbe- 
lievers recognized as proper scriptural subjects for 
baptism. No place in all of Christ's instructions to 
His apostles did He command, authorize, sanction or 
permit any of His disciples to baptize unbelievers; 
hence it would have been tautological and redundant, 
and a violation of every principle of philology, logic, 
and rhetoric, to have said : a He that is not baptized 
shall not be saved; "for, if a man was not a believer, of 
course he would not be baptized. It is the supremest 
nonsense to suppose that a man who did not believe in 
Christ would willingly submit to an ordinance that 
would induct him into a system in which he had no 
faith. Christ said to his apostles : "Go teach all na- 
tions, baptizing them (those whom you teach) in the 
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost." 

It is a violation of both the spirit and letter of the 
commission of Christ to baptize an untaught person. 
A person that cannot be taught, whether from a con- 
sideration of age or imbecility, is not, according to 
Christ's own commission, a proper subject for baptism. 
Hence the baptism ol untaught infants, who do not 
and who cannot come within the provisions and speci- 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 51 

ncations of the commission, is not only an unauthor- 
ized practice, but a palpable and wicked perversion of 
the gospel of Christ. 

But to return to the question : " Is baptism a condi- 
tion of salvation? " If words have any meaning that 
are capable of being understood, then, most assuredly, 
according to Christ's own words, baptism is a prerequi- 
site to salvation ; for He says : " He that believeth 
and is baptized shall be saved." 

Not only did Christ so teach and command, but His 
apostles so understood, taught and practiced. 

Peter, when speaking of baptism, and of its relation 
to salvation, said : " Baptism doth also now save us." 
Of course it will be understood that the salvation to 
which Peter here refers, and with which baptism is al- 
ways connected in the gospel, is a present salvation, 
a salvation from sin. This is evidently the 
case, as will be seen by referring to Saul's conversion. 
When Ananias came to the believing, penitent Saul, 
he said to him: "Saul, Saul, why tarriest thou? 
Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins calling 
on the name oi~ the Lord." 

Paul believed, and yet he was not pardoned ; he had 
r3pented, and yet his sins were not washed away; he 
had prayed for three days, and yet he had to arise and 
be baptized before he could enjoy the forgiveness of 
his sins. How strikingly different is this from the 
teachings of modern orthodoxy! If some of these 
modern divines had been there, they would have said : 
"Saul, Saul, get up and relate your experience ; v and if 
baptism had been mentioned, a very improbable thing, 
grant, they would have said : " Oh ! that is of no im- 



52 CONTRADICTIONS OP ORTHODOXY. 

portance, it is only an outward form of an inward 
grace." But the messenger of the Spirit did not so 
teach the humble, believing, penitent Paul, but said : 
" Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins." It 
is certain, therefore, if Ananias knew what he was talk- 
ing about, and be it remembered he was acting under 
the inspirational influence of the unerring spirit of 
God, that Paul's sins were not washed away ; notwith- 
standing he had complied with all those conditions 
which the so-called and self-assumed ortho.dox churches 
declare to be the all-sufficient condition of pardon. 

The apostle Peter, when detailing the conditions of 
salvation to the three thousand who asked the ques- 
tion, "What must we do to be saved?" mentioned bap- 
tism as one of those conditions on which salvation was 
dependent, for he says, " Repent and be baptized every 
one of you in the name of Jesus Christ." What for, 
let me ask? Peter answers, "For the remission of 
sins." 

In view of these plain gospel facts which the emin- 
ent divines of Chicago cannot successfully deny or set 
aside, it is evident that when they said baptism was 
not a condition of salvation, they were contradicting 
both Christ and his inspired apostles. 

Instead, therefore, of Christ and the apostles differing 
among themselves as Kaklem, my reviewer (a very 
suggestive and appropriate name, I grant), would fain 
have us believe, the point of difference lies between 
Jesus Christ and the Chicago clergy, and we leave them 
to settle the controversy between themselves and the 
Great Master. 

I wish to turn my attention to my respondent, who 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 53 

signs nimself "Kaklein," a name which strikingly ex- 
presses the theological peculiarities and capacities of 
its author and possessor. 

A man who cannot differentiate between what be- 
longs to the gospel and what transpired under the Jew- 
ish Theocracy ; in other words, an assumed teacher of 
religion, who cannot tell when the law of Moses ended 
and the law of Christ began, should never essay to in- 
struct the people upon a question of so much import- 
ance as the salvation of their souls. 

Kaklem has mixed up in his attempted reply to my 
original communication both law and gospel, Judaism 
and Christianity, into a heterogenious mass. He does 
not seem to recognize the universally admitted f act- 
that the answer to the question, "What must I do to 
inherit eternal life?" which was asked under the old 
law of Moses, by the young man who came to Christ,* 
is not, nor can it ever be applied to, or in harmony 
with the gospel dispensation as a condition of pardon. 

The law of pardon, set forth in the gospel of Christ, 
was never promulgated till after the ascension of Jesus 
Christ. Juet previous to the event of Christ's ascen- 
sion He gave His apostles His last great commission, 
which reads as follows : " Go into all the world and 
preach the gospel to every creature. He that believe th 
and is baptized shall be saved." This was given with 
certain restrictions, viz. : " But tarry ye in Jerusalem 
until ye be endued with power from on high; then 
shall ye be my witnesses both in Judea and Jerusalem, 
and in the uttermost parts of the earth." 

The apostles assembled in Jerusalem in compliance 
with Christ's instructions, and waited for the promised 



54 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

power; but they did not have long to wait, for on the 
day of Pentecost the promised blessing came, and they 
began then and there to preach under the divine com- 
mission that Christ had given them. That Pentecost- 
al sermon of Peter's, recorded in Acts, second chapter, 
is the first sermon that was ever preached under the 
last great commission of Christ. It therefore must 
contain the authorized and divinely-appointed condi- 
tions of salvation. 

We have no right to go behind or back of that com- 
mission to find the law of pardon or the conditions of 
salvation under the gospel. 

The question, "What must I do to be saved?" was 
never asked, and therefore never answered, in the times 
of Moses and the prophets; neither was it ever pro- 
pounded in the time of John the Baptist, nor during 
the personal ministry of Jesus Christ. The nearest ap- 
proach to it was the case of the young man who came 
to Jesus and said, " Good Master, what good thing 
shall I do to inherit eternal life?" But the import of 
this question is very different from the one that reads, 
" What must I do to be saved?" The young man had 
his mind upon the idea of endless existence in the re- 
mote future, but the question " What must I do to be 
saved?" has especial and exclusive reference to a present 
salvation — a salvation from sin. It is a question that 
was necessarily born of the gospel plan of salvation, and 
could not have been asked in the sense in which we now 
use it until the plan of salvation set forth in the gospel 
of Christ had been preached to the children of men ; cer- 
tainly not until the salvation scheme was consummated 
and made known. 



CONTRADICTIONS OP ORTHODOXY. 55 

This question is found only in the Acts of the Apos- 
tles, and belongs historically to the tiuies of the apos- 
tles and the present dispensation. It was suggested by 
the very language of the last great commission of 
Christ, which says : " He that believeth and is baptized 
shall be saved. " 

This question, like all others, does not admit of but 
one full and correct answer; and if the apostolic an- 
swer is no longer apposite, then the question itself has 
become obsolete ; and in that event the learned clergy 
so ably represented by the Chicago divines should cor- 
rect and revise the gospel of Christ, in order to save 
anxious sinners from needless misapprehension and 
mistake. 

If this question will not admit of a diversity of an- 
swers — and there can be but one correct and scriptural 
answer, — then it follows, inevitably, that when Paul 
said to the jailer in answer to his inquiry, " believe on 
the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved,' ■ he did 
not give the whole answer; for when Peter answered it 
he said nothing about faith whatever, but commanded 
the enquirers to repent and be baptized for the remis- 
sion of sins. If Peter answered it correctly, and Paul 
answered it correctly, then it follows as a logical se- 
quence, that it takes both of these answers to complete 
the one true and correct scriptural answer. Therefore, 
the full and unabridged answer to the question would 
be : Believe, repent, and be baptized for the remission 
of sins. Each of these conditions are implied in both 
cases a3 will be seejn by noting the obedience which 
they rendered, which was identical. 

This is the divine order and arrangement— an order, 



56 CONTRADICTIONS OF OKTHODOXY. 

that is apparent in all the gospel conversions mention- 
ed in the New Testament Scriptures subsequent to the 
preaching of the first gospel sermon by Peter. The 
Pentecostians believed, repented, and were all baptiz- 
ed. 

The Philippian jailer and his household also believ- 
ed, and they must have repented, for it is not presum- 
able that an inspired apostle would baptize unrepent- 
ant persons, and they were baptized the same hour of 
the night. 

Paul, the apostle, believed, repented, and was bap- 
tized. So with all the fifteen thousand conversions 
mentioned in Acts of the Apostles. I challenge the 
Chicago divines to produce a single case of gospel con- 
version subsequent to the day of Pentecost which did 
not observe this order and arrangement. Under the 
preaching of the apostles there were no such conver- 
sions as we have to-day, for then, men hearing the truth 
believed it ; believing it, they repented of their sins ; 
and repenting of their sins, they went at once without 
delay or procrastination, and were baptized for the re- 
mission of the same, this constituting them children of 
God. After this they lived and walked as becometh 
the followers of the meek and lowly Redeemer of the 
world. 

In conclusion I will say: All the interrogated divines 
mentioned in The Sunday Times of Jan. 4th, conceded 
that faith implies repentance. The same arguments 
that prove that faith implies repentance will also 
prove that faith and repentance imply baptism ; and nu 
amount of logical dodging and theological quibbling 
can evade it. 






CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 57 

The orthodox churches all seem *to be suffering from 
an incurable attack of moial hydrophobia; for they all 
seem to be afraid of the least possible mention ot wa- 
ter in connection with gospel preaching and obedience. 
Why is this? Christ has not only authorized this in- 
stitution, but consecrated it by yielding an obedience 
to it Himself. He has given it the seal of His author- 
ity and the power of His example. 

He did not enter upon his public ministry until He 
had complied with this ordinance of His own appoint- 
ment. Why should the churches that claim Him as 
their head and example ignore this beautiful ordin- 
ance to which he has given the weight of His authority 
and the influence of His example? 

One would almost be induced to believe, from the 
controversial spirit which modern Christians exhibit 
whenever this subject is presented, that they entertain 
not cnly a decided dread, but a positive hatred for 
this holy ordinance of God's appointment. 

I lcng for the day to come when the people of God 
will stand up bravely and contend earnestly for the 
faith once delivered to the saints. We need less ortho- 
doxy and more reverence for the holy oracles of God. 



EDITORIAL COMMENTS. 

The following are the editorial comments on the 
above. They need neither comment nor remark from 
us. They are their own refutation. 

Whether the answers to the question, " What must I 
do to be saved?" given by various clergymen, and 
published in the Sunday Times, are harmonious 
or contradictory, is a matter regarding which the 



58 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

critics are not wholly agreed. The Interior, Pres- 
byterian, of Jan. 8, expressed its satisfaction with 
the reply of Dr. Ryder, Universalis t, and the In- 
dependent, which is not under the necessity of defend- 
ing any one particular statement of faith, finds in the 
replies a remarkable degree of harmony. In its issue 
of the 15th it reprints the replies, and then comments 
as follows on them : 

"Inform these replies are somewhat different; but 
substantially they are the same, except that the Episco- 
palian adds the condition of baptism. We suspect that 
if the interviewer had gone to Messrs. Patton, Willing, 
Thomas, Noble and Ryder as a personal inquirer, he 
would have been treated in the same way by them all. 
They would have all bidden him to repent of his sins. 
Every one would have bidden him devote himself to an 
unselfish, upright, godly life. Every one would have 
told him of the life, teachings and death of Christ, 
through whom he shoulc reach godliness. But wh<m 
we talk about the conditions of salvation, one gives 
precedence to consecration, another to repentance, an- 
other to faith, while all have the same thing in mind. 
But one is looking at the end to be attained, wliTch is a 
holy, unselfish life of love, the character of which is 
itself salvation here, and will insure the coming salva- 
tion ; while another will think it wiser to insist most 
on the process or the means through which this char- 
acter is attained, which are sorrow for past sins, the 
resolve to forsake it, gratitude to Christ for his atoning 
work, and trust in his love for forgiveness and help. 
The Bible puts it in as many different ways as the 
Chicago divines. Sometimes it makes the condition 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 59 

merely character, and this it does in the most solemn 
language, put into the mouth of the judge at the last 
day — language that will include a benevolent, unselfish 
heathen; and again, it makes faith the condition of 
repentance. But this is only a different point of view. 
It is considering the means, instead of the end. A 
young man wants to be a physician, and asks direction. 
One tells him to forsake wood-sawing and devote him- 
self to the study of the laws of life and health. An- 
other tells him to go to the Bellevue medical school. 
The answers are in different terms, but they mean the 
same thing. And sects differ, but, with few exceptions, 
they agree not only that a life of unselfish love will 
insure heaven, but that repentance and faith are the way 
by which one enters into this path of life." 

Here follows Kaklem's lejoinder, which is both small 
and weak, and appears like a humble plea for mercy. 

THAT QUESTION OF AGREEMENT. 
To the Editor. 

A. M. C. derives a singular amount of comfort from 
the signature to my previous letter. I haven't the 
slightest idea what the meaning is which he thinks is 
so strikingly and uncomplimentary significant. The 
tact is, that there was a typographical error in the sig- 
nature as it appeared, so that its extreme appropriate- 
ness, in the eyes of A. M. C, is purely a matter of 
accident. 

Whether the answers of various ministers to the ques- 
tion, " What shall I do to be saved?" are harmonious or 
contradictory, is a matter of opinion that seems to 
depend on whether the critic confines his attention to 
the words of the answer, or extends his examination 



60 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

to the meaning. A. M. C. keeps his eyes on the words, 
and finds them discordant. The Independent looks at 
the meanings and finds them substantially the same. 

With regard to baptism as a sine qua non of salvation, 
it must be noticed that the penitent thief on the cross 
was promised salvation by our Lord, although baptism 
was out ot the question. In our Lord's description of 
the last judgment, the reason why some are saved and 
others lost is not stated to be that some believed and 
were baptized, and others neither believed nor were 
baptized, but that some performed works of unselfish 
benevolence and others didn't. In the case of Cornelius 
and his family, the gift of the Holy Ghost was bestowed 
on them before they were baptized. What possible 
blessing was there left for them to receive as the result 
of baptism? 

A. M. C. admits in his last letter that even in the New 
Testament a categorical and complete answer to the 
question does not exist. He obtains the answer he seeks 
by putting together two or three different answers from 
the Bible, answers that are quite as contradictory as 
the answers of some of the Chicago ministers published 
in the Sunday Times. In admitting this, he has vir- 
tually admitted all that I said in regard to adaptation 
of replies, in the Bible as well as out of it, to the spe- 
cific cases under consideration. 

When the question is not as to the conditions of sal- 
vation, but as to the agreement of the churches on this 
point, the opinions of Dr. Patton, a theological expert, 
and Mr. Hemingway, secretary of the Young Men's 
Christian Association, must carry much more weight 
tLan the opinion of A. M. C, especially as this gentle- 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 61 

man has exposed his own unreliability by attributing* 
to Dr. Ryder and Dr. Thomas answers to the questions 
under debate quite different from the answers that they 
in fact gave. Kahlem. 

Note.— I considered his chosen nom de plume highly appropriate; 
for his productions were beautiful specimens of cheap theological 
CacJding. In the above, however, he intimates that this suggestive 
cognomen was the result of a typographical error on the part of the 
printer. I cheerfully accept of his explanation and humbly beg 
pardon for the seeming unkindness of my remark, though I still 
think Kaklem is the more appropriate title.— Ed. 



LETTER TO THE TIMES. 

The tol lowing is the article, with some slight modifi- 
cations, that was rejected by the Times and subsequently 
published in the Christian Standard : 

I little dreamed when I furnished my first communi- 
cation to the Sunday Times that it would be the means 
of awakening such a wide-spread and profound interest 
in the subject of salvation, and the conditions upon 
which it is suspended, as it has done. I assure you this 
is exceedingly gratifying to me ; and it is my hope that 
this agitation may continue undiminished until a per^ 
feet knowledge of God's glorious plan. of salvation shall 
be fully enjoyed by all the people. 

It seems to have attracted the attention of the lead- 
ing clergymen of Chicago and surrounding country; 
for many of them have preached and published sermons 
upon the subject; and also to have received more than 
a passing notice from both the secular and religious 
press. This is as it should be ; for the supreme impor- 
tance of the subject, it seems to me, calls for a more 
extended and prayerful consideration than it has hith- 
erto received at the hands of the churches. 



62 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

It is to b*e regretted that there is not more unity of 
faith among the public teachers of religion upon this 
great fundamental doctrine. The recent discussion of 
this subject, in the press and pulpits of Chicago, has 
discovered the startling fact that doctors differ, even on 
the primary and initiatory doctrines of the Bible, as 
well as upon the more advanced and complicated ques- 
tions of theology. 

If there is a question connected with the scheme of 
human redemption upon which differences of faith and 
sentiment are likely to prove disastrous, and upon 
which there should be the most perfect agreement and 
harmony, it is -the question of salvation, and the condi- 
tions upon which it is suspended in the Scriptures. If 
the churches cannot agree upon the primary doctrines 
of the Bible, we shall hope in vain to find them a unit 
on the secondary and more complex theories of ecclesi- 
asticism. The situation would be less lamentable and 
disastrous if the disagreement among the so-called 
orthodox churches amounted to nothing more than a 
simple difference of opinion ; but, unfortunately for the 
cause of Christ, these differences amount in some in- 
stances to downright contradictions, as will be seen by 
returning to the answers given by the several Chicago 
clergymen to the question, " What must a man do to be 
saved?" These men not only differed in their notions 
of what is essential to salvation, but some of them 
plainly and unequivocally contradicted each other. In 
view of such an unfortunate state of things as this, 
what would an humble sinner do who was anxious to 
secure the salvation of his soul? When Doctors of 
Divinity differ and learned clergymen contradict each 






CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 63 

other on the primary question of salvation, and cannot 
agree in regard to what is essential to the salvation of 
the soul, what hope, pray tell, can a poor, unenlightened 
and ignorant sinner have of ever finding the way of 
life? 

This is no fancy sketch ; no exaggerated account, but 
the exact state of things that now obtains in the relig- 
ious world, and which, in my humble opinion, is the 
proline source of much indifference, if not absolute 
infidelity. 

I cannot believe that these vast differences are nec- 
essary or unavoidable. There must be some rational 
explanation for these diversities of doctrine, for no one 
will presume to say that these antagonisms are all sup- 
ported by and found in the Sacred Scriptures. 

A careful analysis of all those passages which refer 
to the subject of salvation, and a critical examination 
of every answer given in the Scriptures to the all- 
important inquiry, "What shall I do to be saved?" 
reveal the fact that there is neither difference nor con- 
tradiction in the Scriptures on this subject, but the 
fullest and most perfect harmony prevails throughout 
the entire domain of revealed truth. I am therefore 
forced to conclude that the contradictory answers given 
to the above question by the eminent Chicago divines 
had their origin not in the Scriptures of truth, but in 
thair pre-adopted and favorite creeds. 
. To show that the Bible is in harmony with itself upon 
this one question at least, is the object of this paper. 

In my last letter I demonstrated the fact that tie 
Chicago clergymen plainly and pointedly contradicted 
each other and Christ, when answering the question, 



64 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

" What shall I do to be saved?" Even Kahlem, my 
reviewer and amiable respondent, concedes, in his brief 
response to my last, that the words of the Chicago cler- 
gymen, when answering that important question, were 
contradictory; but intimates that, notwithstanding they 
plainly contradict each other in words, they all meant 
the same thing. Now, I want to know how to har- 
monize this palpable paradox : If they all meant the 
same thing, why in the name of reason and common 
sense did they say different and contradictory things? 
The only way the readers of the Times can find out 
what they meant, is by what they said. When one says 
a yes," and the other says " no " to the same question, 
I call it a point-blank contradiction. 

Kahlem says that the Bible answers to the question 
are quite as contradictory as the answers of the .Chicago 
clergymen. I deny this most emphatically, and chal- 
lenge him for the proof. The Bible answers may differ, 
owing to the difference in the relations and conditions 
of those asking the question; but they do not antago- 
lize nor contradict each other in a single instance or 
particular. The fact is, that though they differ, they 
do not disagree; but the most perfect harmony and 
agreement exist between them. 

Kahlem does not seem to comprehend the fact that 
things may be different, and yet not be contradictory. 

While the apostolic answers to the question, " What 
;hall I do to be saved? " are different in some particu- 
ars, they do no contradict each other in any sense 
whatever. The answers in each case corresponded with 
the circumstances and conditions of those asking the 
question, and when we analyze each case, and observe 






CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 65 

the conditions vvhich each obeyed in order to salvation, 
we find that they all rendered identically the same 
obedience — that is, they all heard the gospel, believed 
it, repented of their sins, and were all baptized for the 
remission of the same. There is no contradiction 
between faith, repentance and obedience ; these differ, 
but they do not contradict one another. 

Kahlem also says that I had to put two or three 
passages together, in order to make out the one com- 
plete answer which I regarded as correct and Scriptural. 
This, too, is a mistake on his part. From every answer 
given to the question, "What shall I do to be saved? " 
under apostolic preaching, a full and complete answer 
can be deduced ; and it will be found upon such exam- 
ination that the answers are practically the same in each 
case ; for they all rendered the same obedience, and in 
the same way. Some of the conditions are not verbally 
expressed; nevertheless, they are most positively im- 
plied, as will be seen from reading the account of the 
conversion of the Philippian jailer, who was told, when 
he asked, "What must I do to be saved? " to "believe 
on the Lord Jesus Christ." It does not say that Paul 
cold him to be baptized; and yet the sacred writer 
informs us that he was baptized the same hour of the 
night. 

It is plainly evident, therefore, that Paul included in 
his answer this Scriptural condition ; and unfolded it 
in his sermon. Here I must refer to the ingenious sub- 
terfuge originated by Dr. H. W. Thomas, to get rid of 
the apostolic answer to this question. He says the con- 
verts to Christianity, at the beginning of the Christian 
ra, were principally from the heathen nations; and the 

5 



<l)6 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

apostolic answer, " to repent and be baptized for the 
remission of sins," was highly applicable and appro- 
priate to them ; but that it is not appropriate for those 
who live to-day under the influence of Christian civil- 
ization. According to this new departure, God has one 
plan of pardon for an unenlightened heathen, and an 
altogether different plan for an enlightened American 
sinner. 

But it so happens that those who asked this question, 
and received the apostolic answer, were not heathens at 
all, in any sense of the word. Were the Pentecostians 
heathens? Certainly not; for they were Jews and 
"devout men from every nation under heaven;" yet 
they were told to repent, and be baptized for the remis- 
sion of their sins. Was Paul a heathen? He was one 
of the straightest of the sect of the Jewish religion, 
brought up at the feet of the learned Gamaliel ; and 
yet he asked this question, and received for his answer, 
u Arise and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, call- 
ing on the name of the Lord." This invention of Dr. 
Thomas' is simply nothing more nor less than a gratui- 
tous assumption on his part, to evade an;J avoid the 
apostolic answer to the great question, " What shall I 
do to be saved?" If the answer given by the apostles 
:"s only proper for a heathen, then the question itself is 
appropriate for the same class only; and this theory 
would make both the question and the answer obsolete, 
and entirely out of place in this enlightened Christian 
age — this age of modern civilization and refinement. 

It is my opinion that the intelligent readers of the 
Times will be slow to believe that we have outgrow T n 
and progressed beyond apostolic authority ; or that God 



COKTKADICTIOKS CF CBIHOEOXY. 67 

has one plan of salvation for a Palestinian heathen, and 
a different plan for an American sinner. 

Sin is the same the world over, no matter by whom 
committed, and the law of pardon is a unit, and adapts 
itself to all classes and conditions; and there can be 
but one correct answer to the question of salvation; 
and if the apostolic answer is obsolete and inappropri- 
ate, then we are afloat upon the waves of a hopeless 
fatality, without compass or chart, and there is no 
authoritative answer to our great life question. 

Without further preliminary observations, let us turn 
our attention to the great living and all-absorbing 
question, "What shall I do to be saved?" 

Before this question can be intelligently or under- 
standingly answered, we must determine the meaning 
of the word " saved." The words " saved " and " salva- 
tion " are not always employed in the Scriptures to rep- 
resent the same thought. In every salvation, whether 
pertaining to this world or the next, there are involved 
three distinct ideas: (1) A Saviour; (2) something to be 
saved ; and (3) some danger or consequence from which 
to be delivered. 

The word " saved " is used in the Bible to indicate 
two important conditions, essentially different from 
each other, and yet bearing an intimate and consequen- 
tial relation to each other. 

" What must I do to be saved?" is sometimes asked 
m regard to a present salvation, — a salvation from sin. 
What must I do to be pardoned, to be delivered from 
the power and dominion of sin? The answer to this 
question must involve the law of pardon; and to this 
question there can be but one answer; for no one, I 






68 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

presume, will be so inconsistent as to advocate that 
God has revealed in His gospel more than one law of 
forgiveness. Pardon is conditional, and the conditions 
are subject to no mutations ; they are necessarily the 
same in every case, so that the answer to the question, 
a What must I do to be saved from my sins? " must be 
definite, clear, and always the same. 

But there is another sense in which the word " saved " 
is employed in the Bible. The question is sometimes 
asked, " What shall I do to inherit eternal life? " What 
shall I do to be saved eternally at God's right hand? 
This is a very different question from the foregoing. 
The essential difference between these two questions 
must be obvious even to the most careless and indiffer- 
ent thinker. The first contemplates a present salvation, 

a salvation enjoyed here in this life; while the second 

has regard to a salvation that is future, and to be 
enjoyed only after the sorrows and disappointments oi 
this life are over. It must be apparent to every think- 
ing mind that the answers to these questions must diffo 
as widely as the import of the questions themselves. 

Both of these are Bible questions, and they are both 
fully and, I think, satisfactorily answered in the holy 
oracles of God. When, therefore, any one asks the 
question, " What must I do to be saved?" before we can 
o-ive an intelligent, appropriate, or Scriptural answei, 
we must be informed as to the sense in which he 
employs the word " saved." If he means, " What must 
I do to be saved from my sins?" the answei is clearly 
revealed in the gospel of Christ; and whoever gives to 
an inquiring sinner any other answer than that which 
God has authorized, is guilty of perverting the word of 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. b5J 

life and salvation. If, on the other hand, the question 
is asked with reference to a future salvation from the 
grave, and comprehending the consideration of eternal 
life beyond the confines of time, then the answer must 
correspond to the scope of the question, and include all 
those conditions on which eternal life is suspended in 
the Sacred Scriptures. 

There are betore us, therefore, two questions very 
intimately related to each other and yet distinctly dif- 
ferent from each other, and calling for essentially differ- 
ent answers. 

It is my purpose to give the Scriptural answer to both 
of these questions. In keeping with this purpose, let 
us inquire, What shall a man do to be saved from his 
sins? The answer to this question must be influenced 
in a measure by the relations and circumstances of the 
person asking it. Suppose an unenlightened person 
should propound this question, — one who had never 
heard the gospel of Christ proclaimed in its amplitude, 
— what would be a proper and at the same time Script- 
ural answer to give to such an individual? Fortunately 
for us we find an exact parallel in Acts, sixteenth 
chapter. 

The Philippian jailer had, as the sequel evidently 
shows, never heard the plan of salvation proclaimed in 
all his lite; all he knew of it was the false and preju- 
diced reports that had been brought to his ears. He 
had in his charge two gospel preachers. He had made 
them, as he supposed, perfectly safe, having thrust them 
into the inner prison and made their feet fast in the 
stocks. At midnight, Silas, the Sankey of the occasion, 
struck up a "Gospel hymn," and as its grand and 



70 CONTRADICTIONS OP ORTHODOXY. 

heavenly notes rang out in the darkness and rolled up 
from the damp and cheerless walls in which the pris- 
oners were confined, they were borne on the midnight 
air to the very throne of God. Listening angels heard 
the glad song, and started on a mission of deliverance. 
At their arrival, the earth quaked, the prison-doors 
flung wide upon their massive, creaking hinges, the 
stocks fell from the prisoners' wearied and lacerated 
limbs. The jailer, aroused from his deep and heavy 
slumbers by the earthquake and the songs, called for a 
light, and sprang in before Paul and Silas, and said in 
a tone and manner that indicated profound sincerity, 
"What shall I do to be saved?" He was satisfied that there 
was something divine in those midnight songs. Paul, 
the Moody of the occasion, answered his questions in 
the following words : " Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, 
and thou shalt be saved and thy house." But Paul, 
remembering that no man could believe m a thing of 
which he had no knowledge, began then and there, and 
preached to him and his household the gospel of salva- 
tion, and the jailer obeyed it without delay, for the 
historian informs us that Paul baptized him and his 
household the same hour of the night. 

From this single case we can, by a legitimate deduc- 
tion, obtain all the items which enter into the Scriptural 
answer of the question, " What shall I do to be saved 
from my sins? " The obedience of the jailer began in 
faith and ended in baptism. There can be no reason- 
able doubt but that he heartily repented of his sins; 
for it is not consistent to suppose that an inspired 
apostle would baptize an unrepentant man ; therefore 
the answer, as eliminated from this Scriptural narra- 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 71 

tive, stands as follows : Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, 
repent of all your sins, and be baptized for the remis- 
sion of the same. 

Now, I will suppose another case, — and not an im- 
probable one by any means. If an individual who 
has heard the gospel, and is therefore intelligent 
upon the subject, and who believes it, having been con- 
vinced of its truth, — if such an one, I say, should ask 
the question, " What must I do to be saved? " in the 
sense in which we are now considering it, what would 
be a proper and at the same time Scriptural answer to 
give to the question? Here, as in the preceding case, 
we find in the Scriptures a perfect parallel. In Acts 
second chapter, we have a detailed account of the con- 
version of 3,000 just such cases. They had witnessed 
the lambent flames that gleamed and flashed with 
divine radiance over the swarthy brows of the inspired 
Galileans. They had heard and felt the rushing mighty 
wind that came like a cyclone from the hand of God. 
They had listened to the eloquent and convincing ap- 
peal of the bold and defiant Peter, as he stood before 
them, the very personification and embodiment of di- 
vine wisdom and power. 

He charged them with the cruel, heartless murder of 
the sinless Son of God. He boldly declared the sub- 
lime doctrines of His resurrection and ascension ; and 
when the people were " pricked " to the heart, which is 
only another form for saying they believed Peter's 
preaching, they cried out, " What must we do to be 
saved? " 

Let us give ear to the answer given by the holy in- 
spired apostle. Eemember this is the answer that was 



72 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

indited by the unerring spirit of God, under whose di» 
vine agency they were preaching. 

Peter said : " Repent and be baptized every one of 
you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of 
sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. n 

Three thousand men and women yielded to this an- 
swer; and the obedience of each was not uolike the 
obedience of the Philippian jailer; for their obedience, 
like the jailer's, began in faith, continued in repent- 
ance, and closed with baptism. 

I will now introduce another suppositious case. Sup- 
pose a man who has heard the gospel believed its great 
facts, and repented of his sins ; if he should propound 
this question to an authorized gospel preacher, what 
would be the correct, Scriptural answer to give such an 
individual? Fortunately, we are not without a parallel 
in the Scriptures to this suppositional penitent, for in 
Acts, twenty-second chapter, we have a case which cor- 
responds to this in every essential particular. 

Saul was a commissioned persecutor of the Church 
of Christ. He was on his way to Damascus to arrest 
and incarcerate any he might find who called upon the 
name of the Lord. Jesus appeared to him on the way, 
and the light and glory of His divine presence shone 
about the persecuting and ambitious Saul with such 
superlative splendor that he fell to the earth over- 
powered by the unearthly brilliance that gleamed like 
lurid lightning around and about him. The cerulean 
vault above him appeared to his dazzled eyes like a 
mass of liquid fire, — the earth seemed baptized in a 
flood of golden glory. Had a sun from the solar realm 
burst and poured its contents of light upon the heads 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 73 

of Paul and his associates, the effect could not have 
been more awful and appalling. Hearing a voice of 
reproof issuing from the brilliant Being that stood be- 
fore him, Saul cried out, " Who art thou, Lord? " Jesus 
answered: "J am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou perse- 
cutest." Then Saul asked the question which we are 
now considering, viz.: "What wilt thou have me to 
do?" The Saviour directed him to go to Damascus, 
and informed him that it would be told him there what 
he must do. Saul repaired immediately to Damascus, 
and, in a state of mental anxiety better imagined than 
described, he continued to repent and pray for three 
long, weary, sorrowful days, at the expiration of which 
time God sent a gospel preacher to him by the name 
of Ananias, who, when he came into the presence of 
the notorious persecuting Saul, and beheld him humble 
and penitent, and as docile as a child, said: "Saul, 
Saul, why tarriest thou? Arise and be baptized and 
wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord." 
Saul had heard, believed, and repented, and therefore 
Ananias told him to dp the one thing he had not yet 
done to complete his gospel obedience. It is plainly 
evident, therefore, that Paul's obedience was not unlike 
either the jailer's or the Pentecostian's ; for it began in 
faith, continued in repentance, and ended in baptism 
for the remission of sins. 

Who cannot fail to see that the answers in all these 
three cases are practically the same? There is neither 
difference nor disagreement between them. What is 
not expressed is most certainly implied ; and when they 
are considered in their entirety, they are exact and- per- 
fect parallels. The full, complete and divinely author- 



74 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

ized answer, therefore, to the question, "What must I 
do to be saved? " is, in simple terms, belief in Christ, 
repentance for sins, and baptism for the remission of 
the same. 

The Acts of the Apostles contain the detailed account 
of not less than 15,000 conversions; and in every in- 
stance, without a single exception, they believed, re- 
pented, and were baptized. This is the only book in 
all the Bible that answers this all-engrossing question, 
and its answer is fully and clearly set forth. Had the 
Chicago divines been governed by these divine instruc- 
tions, instead of following the teachings of so-called 
orthodoxy, they would all have given the same answer; 
and, instead of confusion and disappointment, mortifi- 
cation and injury, resulting from their answers, as I 
have reason to believe has been the result, the cause of 
Christ would have been advanced and sinners enlight- 
ened and converted to God. 

Let us return to Apostolic Christianity, and get away 
from the stultifying and belittling influence of ortho- 
dox speculations. When sinners ask what they must 
do to be saved, let us give them a Scriptural answer, 
instead of confusing them with the senseless jargon of 
blubbering Ashdod. 

May the day soon come when the people shall know 
the truth, and the truth shall make them free. 

Why will Kahlem still exhibit such shocking stu- 
pidity as to refer to the thief on the cross to prove that 
a man can be saved without baptism? 

The thief did not live under the gospel dispensation ; 
and he died before the law of pardon was preached by 
the authority of Jesus Christ. Christ did not give his 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 75 

commission to the apostles until after his resurrection ; 
and any case that historically antedates that commis- 
sion has no significance or application under the gospel 
dispensation. 

Give us a case in the New Testament which occurred 
this side of Pentecost, and show that faith, repentance 
and baptism were not required, and I will give it up, 
and concede that I have mistaken and misinterpreted 
the gospel of God. 

Kahlem knew better than to present that instance ; 
but it was an extremity — it was that or nothing — and 
he thought to confuse the uninformed. 

Thus have I shown clearly that the answer to the 
first question, "What must 1 do to be saved from sin?" 
is simple, and easily understood ; and can be elucidated 
fully from every case of gospel obedience mentioned in 
the Acts of the Apostles. 

Now let us ask and answer that other question: 
"What must I do to have eternal life?" Christ has 
answered this question fully. 

In Matthew, chapter nineteen, we have an account of 
a young man coming to Christ, and asking this iden- 
tical question : " Good Master, what good thing shall I 
do that I may have eternal life? " What did Christ tell 
him to do? Christ indicated in his answer the princi- 
ple which must obtain at all times and in all cases. 
Here is his answer: "Keep the Commandments." 
Laws may change, dispensations may change, com- 
mands may change, but principles are as eternal as 
God, and can never change. "Keep the Command- 
ments " is the principle on which eternal salvation is 
suspended now and evermore. When Christ said to the 



76 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 



young man, " Keep the Commandments," he meant the 
current commandments, the then existing and authori- 
tative commandments, those that belonged to the dis- 
pensation under which he was living. 

This principle of obedience is the one that obtains 
now under the gospel : " Blessed are they that do his 
commandments, that they may have right to the tree 
of life, and may enter in through the gates into the 
city." 

" Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall 
enter into the kingdom of God, but he that doeth the 
will of my Father who is in heaven." Those who by 
patient continuance in well doing seek for glory, honor 
and immortality, shall have eternal life. We are com- 
manded to " work out our own salvation with fear and 
trembling." From the foregoing passages we see that 
obedience to God's commands is the principle on ivhich 
eternal salvation hangs. 

In conclusion, I will say there are but ten steps to 
heaven and immortal glory — three for the sinner, viz. : 
faith, repentance, and baptism ; and seven for the Chris- 
tion ; see 2 Pet. 1 : 5-7 : " Besides this giving all dili- 
gence, add to your faith, virtue, knowledge, temper- 
ance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, charity. 
Or, to epitomize and paraphrase this whole subject, we 
must obey the conditions of pardon, and then live de- 
voted Christian lives, if we would be finally saved at 
God's right hand. 

If the Bible is of any authority whatever upon the 
question of gospel obedience, and apostolic injunctions 
and precedents are to be respected, then most assuredly 
the above is God's divinely appointed plan ; and any 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 77 

deviation or departure therefrom is a pervereion of the 
divine order, and consequently sinful. 

It is my settled conviction that modern, so-called 
orthodoxy, is the prolific source of skepticism and infi- 
delity. It is the settled policy of the devil to pervert 
the gospel, for he has long since learned that he cannot 
subvert it. 

A want of reverence for the word of God is the great- 
est sin of this age. It is fast coming to this, that we 
must do one of two things ; either accept the Bible as 
the revealed word of God, and be governed by it, or 
reject it altogether as unworthy of any confidence or 
respect. 

The orthodox world ostensibly receive it, while they 
practically reject its teachings, and hold to things not 
found in its sacred pages. They are teaching for the 
doctrine of God, the inventions and devices of men. 

Oh ! when will Zion put on her beautiful garments, 
and shine in the loveliness of her bridal robes 1 C. 



CHAPTER III. 



SERMON BY REV. D. L. MOODY ON "WHAT SHALL I DO TO 
BE SAVED? " 

[This is a characteristic sermon, and I print it as a 
theological curiosity. It is a fair specimen of orthodox 
intelligence on the Bible plan of salvation. — Ed.] 

Mr. Moody spoke as follows : 

In the 16th chapter of Acts, and the 30th and 31st 
verses, the answer to the question therein will be our 
subject to-day, and one of the most important questions 
that can be raised upon the earth — " What must I do to 
be saved? " 

Last Friday afternoon a young man was sitting right 
cown here, and at the close of the meeting he wanted 
some one to talk with him and tell him what to do to 
be saved. He said that he was very sick ; he had been 
bleeding at the lungs, and that he had a very little 
while to stay, and he expected in a few days to be gone. 
He had come up these three nights of stairs to find 
some one to answer that question, and to tell him what 
he must do to be saved. A brother with bis open Bible 
explained to him in a few minutes the plan of salva- 
tion, and to all human appearances the young man ac- 
cepted Christ and went out as I trust, rejoicing. When 
I heard it I said to myself, " I will try if I can in all 
(78) 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. id 

these Library Hall meetings, to make the way plain, so 
that if a man just comes in once, he may find his way 
to the cross." 

Since I came into the hall this afternoon, I have been 
talking to a young man who has become discouraged. 
He has been trying to save himself and has utterly 
failed, and he has become discouraged. Now I think 
that is 

A VERY HOPEFUL SIGN. 

As long as a man is trying to save himself, I think 
there is no hope whatever of his being saved, and I 
think there is not a candid man here to-day but will 
see that and see why it is. If man can save himself, 
Christ had no need to have come. It was " when we 
were without strength, in due time Christ died." If 
man has the power to work his way up to heaven with- 
out Christ and without a Savi« »ur, why, God made a 
mistake in sending Christ into the world to save us. 
But when we were without strength, and had not the 
power to save ourselves, and could not get the victory 
over self and become a true Christian, Christ came to 
do that work for us. And what man wants is to give 
up trying to save himself and let the Lord save him. 

Now I know a great many will say, "That is strange 
talk, for I thought if I did the best I could, and tried 
as hard as I could, that then the Lord would do the 
rest, and we would work the thing out together ; and if 
this is so what does it mean when it says : 4 Work out 
your own salvation with fear and trembling? ' " 

Now, man works because he is saved, not to be saved. 
Man works from the cross and not towards it. We 
work out salvation after we get it, but we can't work 



80 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

out what we haven't get. "Salvation is the gift of 
God.' 1 " The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God 
is eternal life." We take salvation as a gift, and then 
we go to work and work it out ; but it is folly for a 
man to attempt to work before he gets salvation. It is 
folly for a man to attempt to work for salvation, be- 
cause if a man gets it by work then it is by merit, and 
he makes God a debtor, and God is under obligation to 
save him because he has worked and earned salvation. 
The Scriptures say that it is to him that worketh not 
but believeth, and we must give up working for salva- 
tion and take it as a gift. When men get done work- 
ing for salvation and stop trying to save themselves, 
and cry out, " Lord, I am lost. Save me ! help me ! 
bring me up out of the pit! " 

THEN THE LORD WILL SAVE THEM. 

Some one asked an Indian how he was saved, and he 
took some dry leaves and made a circle, and then 
he set the leaves on fire ; and he put a worm right in 
the middle of the circle, and the worm started to go 
toward the fire and found it was too hot, and turned 
around and went in another direction ; and it kept going 
this way and that way, and at last it went back into 
the center of the circle and got as far as it could go 
from the fire, and curled itself up to die — gave itself 
up as lost ; got done trying to save itself. And then 
the Indian put his hand right over the flames and drew 
the worm up out of the jaws ot death, and he said that 
was the way the Lord saved him. He said he had tried 
to work it out ; he went this way and that way, and he 
did this and did that, and he went on trying, but when 
he gave it all up the Lord saved him. 






CONTRADICTIONS OP ORTHODOXY. 81 

# 

Isn't that the experience of every man who has been 
saved in this hall? Didn't you try to save yourself and 
didn't you go to this physician and to that one before 
you went to the true Physician? Didn't you say, " I 
will lop off this sin and that sin, and I will work this 
thing out?" *and didn't you grow worse instead of 
better? 

A man has told me since I have been in this hall 
to-day that he has tried the thing and he has grown 
worse instead of better. That is the experience of 
every one until he gets done trying, and he receives the 
Lord Jesus Christ into his heart. 

I once heard of a woman who was very anxious about 
her sins, and about becoming a Christian, and she tried 
and tried to save herself, aod utterly failed, and one 
night she had a dream — not that I believe in dreams, 
but sometimes a dream illustrates a truth — and she 
dreamed that she was in a pit, and she tried to get out 
of the pit, and she would climb up a few steps and then 
slip back. Then she would climb up again and slip 
back, and she kept climbing and slipping, climbing 
and slipping, climbing and slipping, and at last she got 
discouraged, and she gave herself up to die — gave her- 
self up as lost. She thought she 

MUST PERISH IN THAT PIT, 

and she laid herself down on the bottom of the pit to 
die. And in her dream she looked out of the pit and 
she saw a beautiful star, and she fixed her eye upon 
that star, and it seemed as if that star lifted her up out 
of the pit, and when she had been taken almost out she 
began to look at herself again, and down into the pit 
she went. The second time she fixed her eye upon that 



82 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

star, and it seemed to lift her higher and higher, and 
the second time she was almost out of the pit, and she 
took her eyes off the star and began to look at herself, 
and she saw she was the same old, miserable self, and 
again, in her dream, back into the pit she went. The 
third time she fixed her eyes upon that star, she kept 
her eye upon it, and rose higher, higher, higher, and at 
last up out of the pit she was brought and her feet 
touched the rocks above; she woke from her sleep, but 
so she learned the lesson that if she ever got out of 
Adam's pit, and if she was ever to be saved, she must 
get done looking to herself and trying to work her way 
out and save herself, and look at the Star of Bethlehem, 
and she has been looking at the Star of Bethlehem 
ever since. 

Now, my friends, you who have been trying to save 
yourselves, give it all up and this day look to Him and 
say, "Lord Jesus, become the star of my hope. 
Become my way, my truth and my life," and just trust 
Him to do what He has come into the world to do. 
u His name shall be called Jesus, for He shall save His 
people from their sins ; " and if a man is willing to let 
Him save him he can be saved. 

But I caa imagine some of you say, " How is it about 
my old sins? Now, I have become confirmed in a great 
many sins. 1 ' You say, perhaps, you have tried to stop 
swearing, and you have failed. You have tried to get 
control over your temper and you have failed. You 
have tried to 

GET CONTROL OVER YOUR APPETITE, 

and you have failed. You have tried to get the control 
over your passions and you have utterly failed. You 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 83 

have tried many and many a time to get the victory 
and you have failed, and now you say, u What will 
become of me? If I should become a Christian I 
would fall and bring reproach upon the cause of 
Christ." 

Don't you think that the God that created heaven 
and earth has got power to save a poor sinner like you 
and I? Hasn't he the power to keep us? " For I, the 
Lord, thy God, will hold thy right hand and say fear 
not, I will help thee." If God says he will help a poor 
sinner here in St. Louis, hasn't He got the power to do 
it? If you become linked to the man on the throne of 
God He will give you power over the .world. He came 
into the world just for that purpose, that is His mis- 
sion, that is His profession, to save sinners; and when 
we became partakers of God's nature — for that is the 
new birth — we became partakers of the Divine nature, 
and with this nature we overcome, we get the victory. 
It is folly for a man to attempt to overcome until he 
gets the new nature, and that new nature is Christ in us- 

I was preaching in a small town a number of years 
ago — quite a number — when I first began to talk; I 
didn't call it preaching then — and I went to a little 
town in the West. I couldn't get the people in the 
church to hear me, so I went on the streets and tried to 
get some one to sing. I could not sing. I am no 
singer myself, and I tried to get the people to sing, but 
they seemed to be ashamed to do it, and for the first 
few days we made pretty poor work of it, and I suppose 
the people thought I was a wild man standing on top 
of a dry-goods box on a great thoroughfare in the town. 
A great many stood around to see what I was going to 



84 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

do, and what was going to happen, and when I had 

, GOT QUITE A CROWD, 

and began to preach the gospel, and after* I had been 
preaching there a number of evenings, then we would 
adjourn and go into the church, so we filled the church. 
One evening a man drove up. He had a fine-looking 
carriage, and he had his hat on one side of his head and 
a cigar in his mouth, and he acted as if he didn't want 
any one to know that he was attending the meetings; 
and in a careless way he was assuming that he didn't 
care particularly what was goin^ on ; but I noticed that 
he was listening, and after he had been there a number 
of evenings — he had driven up and listened for two or 
three evenings — I noticed one night that tears stood in 
his eyes. He was trying to conceal it. You know 
some men act very strange. They don't want you to 
know that they are affected, and they put up their 
hands to their faces, and all that. It is not manly for 
some men to shed tears for sin. It is manly to do a 
gnat many mean and contemptible things, but it is not 
manly for a man to shed a tear over his sins. I 
said to some one of the friends after the meeting was 
over, " Who is that man that drives up every evening 

in a carriage? " " Well, that is, Mr. P ." " Is he a 

Christian man? " U A Christian man! I will venture 
to say there is not a man within a hundred miles that 
has done the damage to the church that that man has 
done." " Well, how is that? " " Well, he is one of the 
wealthiest men in this part of the country, and he is a 
man of great influence, but one of the most profane 
men, and one of the most 

VULGAR AND OBSCENE TALKING MEN 

that is in the community." 






CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY _ 85 

"Well," I said, " he is interested." 

" No," was the reply, " he is not. If you had heard 
what he said about you down street to-day, and the fun 
he has been making of you and the meetings, you 
wouldn't think he was interested." 

" Well," I said, " you can't tell anything from that. 
Some men, when the Spirit of God wakes them up, talk 
right opposite to what they feel." 

And I want to say to you, workers, if you find a man 
in this hall who pretends to be mad when you begin to 
talk to him about his soul, don't be scared at all, for 
very often a man is very much concerned about his sou^ 
when he gets mad, and if the truth has made him mad' 
it is a good sign. The devil generally gets mad before 
he is cast out of a man. It is a hopeful sign, and I 
would a good deal rather have a man mad than asleep- 
The great trouble with most men is, they have gone to 
sleep, and you want to wake them up. 

I said to these people : " It is no sign, and I will 
go up to his house and see him, if you will tell me 
where he lives." They said : " You had better not go. 
He will only curse you." 

u That will not hurt me. It will hurt him more than 
me. He has not power to curse me." 

And I wane to say to you men that are afraid of the 
curses of other men, you had better be afraid of the 
wrath of God. He is the only one who can curse your 
soul. 

I went up to the man's house and I met him coming 
out of the gate of his yard. I said, " I believe this is 
Mr. P .» 



86 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

The man straightened up. "Yes, sir; that is my 
name. What do you want? " 

" Well, I would like to ask you a question if you 
hsvo no objection." 

"What is it, sir?" 

"Well, I am told that you have been blessed above 
every mao in this county. That God has given you 
great wealth, that he has given you a beautiful wife 
and a beautiful family of children, and I am told that 
He has given you good health, and they tell me all that 
he has eyer received in return from you has been 

CURSES AND BLASPHEMY, 

and I would just like to ask you why you treat your 
Lord in that way?" 

Well, the man's countenance fell. " Come in," said 
he, and the tears began to trickle down his cheeks. He 
couldn't conceal them then. I went into his drawing- 
room and took a seat on the sofa, and the man said : 
" How can I help it? If I have tried once I have tried 
a thousand times to stop swearing, and I can't do it. I 
curse my wife, and I believe I love her. I have got, as 
you say, a lovely family of children, and as I sit at the 
table, and before I know it, I am cursing them. I feel 
ashamed of myself. I confess that I am a bad man, 
but I can't help it. I have tried and tried and am try- 
ing, but I am growing worse all the time." 

"Well," I said, " I know all about it; I have been 
there.". 

" What," said he, "did you ever swear?" 

" Yes." 

" Well," says he, "how did you ever get rid of it; 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY, 87 

how did you ever stop? " I said, " I never stopped; it 
stopped itself." 

"Why, how is that?" 

" Well, one night I let the Lord Jesus Christ come 
into this heart of mine, and I have never have had any 
desire to swear since." 

"Is that so?" 

"Yes, sir; that is so." 

" It don't seem possible that you ever swore.' ' 

" Well, it don't to me. I am a stranger almost to 
myself. I wonder at myself. It don't seem possible." 
And then I went on and told him how he could be 
saved. 

"Well," says he, "I don't understand that." 

" No," I said, " but the Lord will reveal it to you if 
you really want to get the victory over sin, if you want 
to get the victory over profanity and over every other 
sin ; for if God is going to save you it must be thorough 
work, not only to break off one sin, but all sin. But 
God lays the ax right at the root of the tree. He don't 
come to save a man from one sin, but from all sin. 
And when God works He makes thorough work of it. % 
Well, I preached Christ to him, and after a while I said : 
" Let us get down here and pray." And after I had 
prayed I said : 

"now, you pray." 

" Me pray? " said he, " why* that would b« downright 
blasphemy. I don't want to add sin to sin. Me pray? 
That would be mockery." 

" Why," said I, " don't you want God to forgive you? 
Don't you want God to have mercy upon you? " 

"Yes," says he, "I do." 



88 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

Said I, "That is honest. Now tell God what you 
want, and ask Him to have mercy upon you." After I 
had prayed the poor fellow began to pray, " God be 
merciful to me a great sinner," and when I got up to 
leave, he said, "Now what shall I do?" "Go right 
down to the church of God and let these people know 
that you have made up your mind to be a child of God 
—to be a Christian." " Why," said he, "go to church? 
Oh, I can't do that? Why, what would people say V* 
" Oh," said I, " you have got to trample that under your 
feet. Never mind what they say. Do right because it 
is right. Now, your whole influence has been against 
the church." 

There ma7 be imperfections in the church, but the 
longer I live the more I am convinced that the best 
people in this world are in the church after all. Men 
may say all the mean and cutting things they have a 
mind to against the church, but if I wanted to find a 
holy man in St. Louis I would find him in some church; 
if I wanted to find a godly, sainted woman I would find 
her in some church. Men are under the power of the 
devil when they are attacking the church and saying 
that the church is not the purest institution unde 
heaven. To be sure it is not perfect, but if you want to 
find holy, godly men you will find them in the church. 

And so I said, "Go right down there; take your stand 
amongst God's people.'* "Why," says he, "I'm not 
fit." "Well," says I, "God will make you fit. Go 
right into the church and tell them you want them to 
pray for you and to be known as on the Lord's side.' 
And the next morning at the prayer meeting Mr. P. was 
there. I was sitting in front of him, and when he got 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 89 

up he put his hand on the settee that I was sitting 
upon, and he trembled; I knew the man was trembling; 
and there was a hush came upon that audience. It 
had been years and years since that man had been seen 
in the church, unless at some funeral. There are some 
people who never go to church except to funerals. He 
was like Saul among the prophets, and when he rose 
every one wondered what he had to say. He says, " I 
want you to pray for me; I want to be a Christian, and 
if God can save a poor sinner like me I want to be 
saved." And we did pray for hkn, and that man is an 
elder in that same church to-day. He didn't have to 
stop swearing; it stopped itself. I tell you if you take 
Jesus Christ into your heart and give him full posses- 
sion of it, those sins that have been pulling you down, 
those sins that have been marring your life and making 
it dark and bitter will flee away. That is the way to 
drive away darkness — to let light in. Christ is the 
light of the world, and if you will let Him into that 
dark heart of yours to-day, just let Him save you in His 
own way and give up trying to save yourself in your 
own way — if you will just surrender yourself unreserv- 
edly to Him, He will save you. 

There are four words that put the way of life, I think, 
plain, perhaps plainer, than any other four words in the 
English language. They are in the passage I quoted 
where Paul tays — Paul and Silas — to the Philippian 
jailor, u Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt 
be saved." Now, some people say, "What do you 
mean by the word belief? I have been brought up 
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ ; I believe He is the 



90 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

Saviour of the world ; I believe thai as firmly, intel- 
lectually, as any man can. I have never been an infidel 
in my views ; I have never been a skeptic. I believe 
intellectually that Jesus Christ can save me." Well, 
that is not it. I think I can make that plain. 
I believe this 

BRIDGE ACROSS THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER 

will take me over to Illinois. I believe it firmly. I 
haven't a doubt about it, and if I want to go over to 
Illinois I believe that bridge will take me over. But 
here is another man down here that don't believe that 
bridge will take him over. Now, if I don't go and get 
on that bridge and walk over I will not get to Illinois 
any more than that unbeliever. To believe that bridge 
will take me over don't take me. It is to believe on 
Christ and walk in Him. " I am the way." It is to 
believe with all the heart, and to take Him by faith ; 
not a historical belief, not a belief intelluctally. Why, 
the devils did that and trembled. They believed ; they 
knew He was the Son of God. It is to believe with all 
the heart and to act upon that belief. " Believe on the 
Lord Jesus Christ." Believe what? Believe that He 
will save me now because He has promised to do it. I 
take Him at His word now. I cast myself upon His 
mercy, and I will believe that He will do just what He 
promised to do. John v., 24, is my favorite verse. I 
have given that to a great many people since I found 
light and peace in that text. "Verily, verily," which 
means truly, truly, "I say unto you," (put your name 
right in there). I say unto you, u William Smith 



CONTRADICTIONS OP ORTHODOXY. 91 

Henry ; " whatever your name is, " I say unto you, he 
that heareth my word and believeth on Him that sent 
me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into con- 
demnation, but is passed from death unto life." If I 
was dying to-night and you were to ask my hope of 
eternal life I would tell you John v., 24. If every 
other word in the Bible were blotted out but that one 
verse it would be enough to rest my weary soul upon. 
The Son of God hath said it. I believe it. I would 
rather build my hopes of heaven on God's word than on 
the best frame of feeling man ever had. It is not that 
we feel good or bad ; it is not that we feel this or that, 
but it is that we believe Jesus Christ will do what He 
has promised to do. I believe that He came into the 
world to save sinners. I am a sinner, and I just take 
Him at His word. I believe that He will save me r 
because He has promised to save all that come to Him. 
I come. 

Well, if men tell me they don't understand it; that 
it is not quite plain, and they don't understand what 
the word belief means, I take them to another word- 
There is a young man down there now, and if he will 
give me his attention I will tell him how he can bo 
saved right now if he will. " He came unto His own ,r 
— that is, the Jews — and they would not have Him. 
" He came unto His own and His own received Him 
not." Now, it is not a dogma, it is not a creed. " He 
came unto His own and His own received Him " — H-i-m, 
a person — "not; but as many as received Him to them 
gave He power to become the sons of God; even to 
them that beUeve on His name. 1 ' Who will receive Jesus 



92 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY 



Christ here this afternoon? Now there is the point. 
Who will take Him? Do you tell me that you haven't 
the power to take Him? Do you tell me that God offers 
you a gift and then don't give you the power to take 
it? With the gift comes the power. Suppose I say to 
any one in this audience that wanted a hymn-book, 
" Here is one ; you can take it." Do you tell me that you 
can't reach out and take it? " God gave Him freely for 
us all." We have to do something with God's Son; 
either receive or reject him. Who will take the gift of 
God? The difference between a saint and a sinner is 
this : one wants Christ to save him ; one wants Christ 
to keep him ; one wants Christ to help him ; and the 
other is without Christ in this dark world ; and when 
temptation comes, dowu he goes; Satan walks right 
over him. But Christ helps man to overcome. Christ 
gives him the victory. Now will you receive him to- 
day? The key to the human heart is the human will. 
As Christ says, " Ye will not come to me that ye may 
have life." It is not because men can't come, but it is 
because they won't; there is the trouble. That man in 
yonder seat can take Christ while I am talking this 
afternoon ; he can take him to his heart if he will. You 
can receive him. 

Now you may say, " By the grace of God I will have 
Him." Wilt thou be made whole? Then take Christ 
and he will make you whole. Wilt thou be made 
clean? Then receive Jesus Christ. If you receive him 
you will be made free; you will be free indeed. He 
proclaims liberty to the captives. He has the power to 
set the captives free. If you want the victory over sin 
you can have it. A man must be doubly blind that 



it. 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 93 

don't want to get the victory over sin. How it mars a 
man's life, 

HOW IT DWARFS AND CRIPPLES 

and keeps him down. Oh, what madness for the nan 
that can get the victory over sin and will not have it! 
Jesus Christ will give it to you if you will receive it. 
Now you know what it is to receive a gift, don't you? 
Isn't there some one here to receive Him? There is a 
man down there who took Him last Friday night He 
was an infidel. I wish you could have heard him in 
the meeting last Monday night. He took Christ, and 
God has scattered all his infidelity. And if there is an 
atheist or an infidel here to-day, if you will receive 
Jesus Christ to your heart, away goes your infidelity, 
away goes all your skepticism. One interview with 
Jesus Christ, if you are with him not more than five 
minutes, will do more towards scattering all the doubts 
and fears of infidelity than all the books you ever read. 
Have one interview with Him, receive Him as your Lord 
and your Master, as your bishop, your priest, your king, 
your all in all ; take Him and He is yours. 

Well, I can imagine some of you say : u I don't un- 
derstand it yet; it is not quite plain yet." Well, here 
is another word ; and they all mean the same thing : 
" Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is 
staid on Thee, because he trusteth ; only trust in the 
Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting 
strength." Now, your strength and mine is going to 
fail some time. God's strength never fails. If I trust 
in God's strength I shall never be disappointed. 
u Cursed is he who maketh an arm of flesh his trust." 
You trust God and he will give you the victory. lie 



94 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

will deliver you. Do you tell me you can't trust Him? 
Why, you can if you will. You can say, as Job did, 
u Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him." I have a 
soul of priceless value. I cannot keep it myself, and I 
will give it to Him. Says Paul, " I am persuaded he is 
able to keep all that I have committed to him against 
that day." What did Paul have? He had a priceless 
soul. Satan was trying to get it — he was trying to ruin 
him. Paul just surrendered it up to the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and then he took a stand on that platform, and 
he said : " I am persuaded he is able to keep all I have 
committed to him against that day." If you have a 
bad appetite, let the Lord keep it for you. You can't 
keep it. If you have a bad temper, the Lord Jesus 
will keep it for you. You can't keep it. Have you 
got that awful sin fastened on you of profanity? Just 
say, " Lord Jesus, keep me from swearing ; take charge 
of this tongue ; Lord Jesus, reign in this heart of mine," 
and see if He will not keep you. He has kept me for 
twenty odd years, and I venture to say there is not a 
meaner man in this crowd than I was. There is no 
chance for boasting now. It is the grace of God ; if 
there is any goodness in me, it is the grace of God. 
And I think the more we get acquainted with ourselves 
the more we will have to take that same ground. We 
are bad by nature. We are corrupt by nature; but the 
Lord Jesus comes with his pure, holy, heavenly nature, 
and it becomes linked with ours, and then we get the 
victory. 

Now will you? Will you trust Him to-day? Will 
you trust Him to save you now? It is the best thing 
you can do. [Some one in the audience responded by 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 95 

rising.] Is there some one else to trust Hint now? Is 
there some one here to make a commitment now? Have 
you been .a poor, miserable blasphemer? Have you 
been a drunkard to this hour? Will you say, " Now, 
Lord, I just commit myself to Thee; I believe You have 
the power to save me and to keep me, and I will trust 
You tocloit"? Will you do it? Isn't there some one 
here to-day to say, " I will "? Speak out. It will do 
you good to say it down deep in your heart, " Now this 
moment will I trust Him." Isn't there some one else 
to say " I will "? Now, just trust Him ; walk right out 
upon that foundation and just trust the Lord to keep 
you. 

But the next word, and then I am through, and that 
is, to take Him. When I was in Glasgow a lady came 
to me. and she says : " Mr. Moody, why do you talk so 
much about c take,' 'take,' as if that was in the Bible? " 
She says: "Is that anywhere in the Bible?" I said: 
11 Yes, I am very glad to tell you it is. I haven't been 
obliged to make up texts." Some people seem to think 
that the Bible is worn out, and that they have to get 
texts outside of the Bible, to give the Bible up. If I 
should live to be as old as Methusaleh I would only 
just touch the Word of God. There are texts enough. 
I don't find any trouble about finding texts. A good 
many people send passages to me by post and want me 
to preach upon them. 

I CAN FIND TEXTS ENOUGH. 

The only trouble is to get sermons founded on those 
texts, so that I may bring home the truth and fasten it 
upon your minds so that it can't get out. I want to 
rivet the truth to your hearts. This lady says : " Is it 



96 CONTRADICTIONS OP ORTHODOXY. 

anywhere in the Bible?" "Yes," I said, "I am very- 
happy to state that it is." "Well," she says, "I have 
been hunting for it and I can't find it." I said : " The 
Bible is sealed up with that little word l take ; ' almost 
the last thing in it is 'take.' " " Is that so?" "Yes, 
that is so." "Will you show it to me?" I turned to 
the last chapter of Kevelation, and the 17th verse: 
" The spirit and the bride say come ; let him that hear- 
eth say come; and let him that is of athirst come; 
and whosoever will let him take of the water of life 
freely." If God says let him take, who is going to stop 
him? Who has the power to stop him? Do you tell 
me God says " Take it," and then don't give you the 
power to take it? Do you say you can't take Christ 
to-day? Do you say you can't take the water of life 
to-day? We press the cup of salvation upon you. The 
Psalmist says : "I will take the cup of salvation and 
will call upon the name of the Lord." Who will take 
it to-day? Who will call upon the name of the Lord? 
The best thing you can do is to take it now — this min- 
ute. " I will." Bring that " I will " of yours right 
out. Just cross the line to-day and say, " By the grace 
of God I will take Christ now as my all and in all." 
Will you do it? 

I wish I could believe for you. I would have you 
all in the kingdom right now. I wish I could trust for 
you; I would have you all in. I wish I could receive 
Him for you ; I would have you all in. I wish I could 
take this cup of salvation for you ; but I can't do it. I 
may offer that man a glass of water, but I can't make 
him drink. It must be an act of his own. I may offer 
it to him ; and so I offer you the cup of salvation to- 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 97 

day. Will you drink it? Will you come? We will 
pass it round. There is a man from Jersey. Will you 
take a sip at the cup to-day? You have drank before; 
isn't it sweet, and can't you recommend it to others? 
" I will take the cup of salvation and call on the name 
of the Lord." 

There is a young man who came in here this after- 
noon that I had a talk with, and I have been anxious 
for him. I have been preaching this whole sermon to 
that man, and I am in hopes that he has decided to take 
Christ. I had another sermon in view this afternoon; 
but I wanted to reach that man, and I have learned that 
the surest way to reach men is to preach to one man. 
I have always learned that if you make one man see it 
others will see it. Now I have tried to make the way 
plain. May the Lord send the truth home, and may 
the Lord seal it on your hearts. Let us unite in prayer. 

CLOSING PRAYER. 

[This prayer is an average orthodox petition, and cor- 
responds wonderfully with the sermon. — Ed.] 

Our heavenly Father, we pray Thee that Thy blessing 
may rest upon that young man who has come here to- 
day discouraged, and who has tried to save himself. 
We pray that he may, this afternoon, give it all up and 
let the Lord save him. May salvation come to his 
heart this very moment. If he has not believed on the 
Lord Jesus Christ with his heart, may he believe now. 
If he has not trusted the Lord Jesus to save him, may 
he do it this moment. May he take the cup of salva- 
tion and call upon the name ot the Lord Jesus Christ 
now. Oh, that the Spirit of God may seal the truth to 
his heart ! And what we ask for this young man we 
7 



98 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY 

ask for every man in this house without God, and we 
hope and we pray for every unsaved soul within these 
walls to-day, and may the great question of eternity be 
settled with them now ; may they come to a decision 
before they leave this room ; may they cast all their 
sins on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thy name shall have 
the praise and the glory. Amen. 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE CONDITIONS OF SALVATION 

[The following sermon, by Rev. L. P. Mercer, pastor 
of the Union Swedenborgian church, illustrates the 
mystic method of hermeneutics and unfolds the science 
of explaining away whatever antagonizes a pre-adop- 
ted creed. It possesses, however, many merits, and so 
we give it place. — Ed.] 

Ye must be born again. — John ill., 7. 

When the Philippian jailer fell down before Paul and 
Silas, asking "What must I do to be saved? " they said: 
" Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be 
saved." And when an enterprising journal sends out 
its reporter to interview the representative teachers of 
nineteenth-century Christianity, he receives substan- 
tially the same answer, from orthodox and heterodox 
alike. It is unquestionably the answer of the gospels, 
and is comprehensive. That is evident in that men of 
all forms of faith, holding the most strikingly dissimi- 
lar doctrines of truth, are able and willing to repeat it 
as a common confession. But this fact is also evidence, 
on the other hand, that the statement is in our day an 
insufficient presentation of the Christian doctrine of 
salvation. A confession out of which men read such 
(99) 



100 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

divergent and even opposite ideas is not likely to be 
satisfying to the earnest inquirer. Ikis not that he will 
deny it, but that he does not understand it. He may 
be persuaded that it contains the truth, but he would 
see the truth which it contains. "Believe on the Lord 
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." Certainly ; but 
what does that mean? The early converts to Chris- 
tianity had no such difficulties as confront the men of 
our day. They were heathen, worshiping many Gods. 
Their worship was born of fear so far as it continued 
to express any emotion. They were losing faith in 
their religion. It did not satisfy. It had even ceased 
to help in all that the religious sentiment demands. It 
taught them nothing with certainty. It held out no 
hope, marked out no clear path of certainty in life. 
The story of our Lord's life and work came to such 
people with an immediate reality and vividness. It 
presented them a single Master worth all their gods ; a 
Teacher wiser than their oracles ; a Saviour from pres- 
ent sin and the dead of judgment. It presented to 
their minds a definite and personal object of worship; 
a Leader to be believed in and obeyed. Belief in him 
w r as clearly something definite to be done. It meant 
the giving up of idolatry, of sacrifices, of superstitious 
practices. It meant an entirely new motive and method 
of life. It suggested not only a change of allegiance, 
but of practice. It meant the renunciation of all that 
had been done in the name of the gods, and the doing 
of the commandments of Christ. But it has no such 
immediate and potent meaning for the man born and 
educated in Christian society. He is not a worshiper 
of idols; he does not sacrifice to devils; he carries his 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 101 

offering to no heathen shrine ; he does not live in per- 
petual fear of offending some one or other of a multi- 
tude of deities. So far as outward conduct of life goes, 
he may very likely have imbibed all his life the spirit 
of a Christian civilization, and walk in the acknowl- 
edged path of Christian morals. When you say to such 
a man, " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall 
be saved," he does not immediately see how it is to be 
done. He doubtless has a kind of traditional belief 
already. The story is no news to him ; he has heard 
nothing else all his life. If he has not kept the com- 
mandments of Christ, he doubtless thinks he has, and 
it is more than likely that he considers himself quite 
as good in the matter of practice as those who profess 
this " belief " which he is told he must have. He very 
naturally asks, therefore, "What do you mean?" 
"What must I do?" 

Then again, the man of to-day is not only placed in 
different circumstances from those to whom Christianity 
was first preached, but his habit of mind is different. 
They for the most part were simple- minded and prac- 
tical; he is proud of his knowledge and fond of reason- 
ing. They saw things in the concrete ; he desires to see 
them in the abstract. They imbibed the spirit of gen- 
eral maxims and statements ; he desires to see them re- 
solved into their principles, asks to be shown the spe- 
cific operations of those principles, and the relation of 
cause and consequence. However much his emotions 
may be excited, the man of the present day will not 
faithfully and persistently follow any direction until he 
sees the reason of it. He will not because he can not, 
if for no other cause. The inherited tendencies and 



102 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

habitual practice of his mind make it impossible for 
him. There are doubtless a great many people to-day, 
as there has always been a great many, who follow the 
leadership of some man or party. But those who seem 
to do least thinking on their own private account, do, 
nevertheless, imbibe the general spirit of the time, 
which demands definite propositions, clear distinctions 
and cogent reasons. 

These two differences of circumstance and mental 
habit combine to present another difficulty to the in- 
quirer of to-day, which did not exist with those to whom 
Christianity was first preached. It is a difficulty which 
grows out of the fullness of the gospel in its final form, 
and the habit of discrimination and comparison under 
the stimulation of modern study. The strong light of 
modern investigation brings out differences of state- 
ments, if not of meaning. It is said, " He that believ- 
eth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believe th 
not shall be damned." "Therefore," said the apostle, 
"we conclude that a man is justified by iaith without 
the deeds of the law." Again, our Lord said : " If ye 
would enter into life, keep the commandments." " If 
ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; " 
and " If a man abide not in me he is cast lorth as a 
branch, and is withered." " Ye see, then," the apostle 
says, "how that by works a man is justified and not by 
faith only ; " while in still other phrase our Lord taught 
Nicodemus, " Except a man be born again he can not 
see the kingdom of God;" and explained the being 
" born again " as being born of " water and the spirit." 

These different statements of the essential of salva- 
tion certainly need comparison and reconciliation. We 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 103 

can conceive of a mind to which they would present no 
difficulties, impressing upon it only a general harmoni- 
ous idea. But such is not the average mind of to-day. 
It is not likely to be satisfied until it sees the specific 
idea in each of these statements and the relative place 
of that idea in the whole truth which the gospel means 
to convey. 

It is not, therefore, necessarily a bad sign, but rather 
a good sign, that after all our preaching and Bible- 
reading men are still asking, " What must I do to be 
saved? " If it shows that there are difficulties in the 
way of spiritual discernment, it shows quite as clearly 
that there is capacity for further development of the 
meaning of the gospel. The worst possible sign in any 
age is contentment with a lip confession of Jesus Christ 
because the church, one's parents, or the general con- 
sent of society, pronounces it to be the right thing. It 
is certainly better that every man should demand to be 
shown, and wish to see, why such a confession is the 
right thing for him. And there certainly is something 
of this spirit, something of this real progress in 
thought, in the general demand for an analysis of the 
gospel promise, " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and 
thou shalt be saved." What is it to be saved? What 
is belief? How is this faith to be attained? What 
change does it imply in one's mental state, and princi- 
ples of conduct, and habits of life? The evangelistic 
appeal, "Believe in Christ," "Come to Jesus," does not 
in any way meet these questions. The effect it produces 
is always emotional, and never intelligent. Whatever 
permanent result seems to come out of it, really comes 
from a diligent and sincere after-study of the teachings 



104 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

of truth, the gospels. The good impulse of the h<_art 
must be guided by thought and understanding before 
it can be fixed in permanent results of character. 

Whatever answer is given to the inquirer of to-day, 
who would know what he must do to be saved, must, in 
order to be useful and satisfying, explain its own whys 
and wherefores. And there is no better criterion of the 
divinity of the gospel answers than this : That their 
essential unity and harmony come out under a right 
development of their definite and particular truth. 
Whoever is able to get a definite and intelligent idea of 
the end to be attained in human salvation, and of the 
processes by which it is attained, will find it easy to 
reconcile all spiritual statements concerning it. The 
possession of such an idea is a matter of much more 
importance to the earnest inquirer than the finding of 
a simple form of words which all Christians may agree 
to repeat. 

What is it to be saved? This is the first thing to be 
determined. To be saved is to be rendered safe, of 
course; but safe from what? Some will tell you, and 
most people talk as if they believed, that it is to be 
safe from the strokes of God's wrath, at least from just 
punishment. A great deal depends on whether you 
start with this idea. For if you comprehend your po- 
sition as that of an adjudged criminal, and your su- 
preme desire is to escape your sentence, then undoubt- 
edly your main inquiry is as to what will appease your 
Judge, secure his pardon and the remission of your sen- 
tence. Concurrent theology rests on this legal aspect 
of man's relation to God, and pleads the merits of 
Christ in man's behalf. It says the sufferings and death 



CONTRADICTIONS OP ORTHODOXY. 105 

of Christ were a sacrifice to the divine justice, and are 
accepted iistead of man's eternal punishment. In or- 
der to avail yourself of this arrangement, you have only 
to believe in it. If you will believe that Christ suffered 
and died for you, you are safe from the awful wrath of 
God, and saved from the terrible sentence of eternal 
torture. Now, I should think if any man believed in 
all that, he would accept the conditions speedily. 
There is no man living who, if he really believed he 
was in danger of such a doom and could go scot free 
upon any such condition, would not instantly believe in 
the atoning sacrifice of Christ with an intensity of self- 
ishness wholly instinctive. But men do not believe in 
any such danger, nor in the justice of any sach arrange- 
ment for its aversion. They do not, and can not, and 
ought not to believe in any such a God. They may be 
in danger of an eternal punishment, but it is not the 
invention of God's wrath. And if on the other hand 
it is something inherent in their own condition, they do 
not see how it can be removed by the sufferings and 
death of another without some actual change in them- 
selves. They merely repeat their question like a child 
who can not comprehend the answer you have given 
him ; and it ought to be considered a mark of honesty 
and good sense. One rejects the idea that we need to 
be saved from the divine wrath, and it is impossible to 
expect salvation on any such penitentiary faith as the 
old theology recommends. 

What we had to be saved from is sin and hell, not 
God. Jesus was so called because he should save his 
people from this sin, not merely the penalty of sin. 
The inspired song of Zacharias in glorification of this 



106 CONTRADICTIONS OF OKTHODOXY. 

advent of our Saviour rejoices that we should be " de- 
livered from our enemies and from the hand of them 
that hate us." The whole gospel clearly represents our 
need as being saved from sin and devils ; lifted out of 
sin, redeemed from the power of evil spirits, and made 
safe in righteousness in harmony with God. We need 
to be turned away from our sins, and saved from their 
destroying power ; and we need this not merely that we, 
may escape the penalty of evil living, but for the love's 
sake of God, who hath so made us that it is possible for 
us to thus be made safe in spiritual wholeness and 
health. 

Now, it is easy to see some reason in such a doctrine ; 
but it does not immediately yield its whole meaning tc 
us. We need to follow this clew to our natural state 
and the necessity for some radical internal change. It 
is very generally allowed that our state by nature is de- 
praved. It is admitted that we are fallen creatures; 
that we are prone to evil continually ; that " the whole 
head is sick," and "the heart is deceitful above all 
things, and desperately wicked : " but in most minds 
this Scriptural truth amounts -to nothing more than a 
vague impression, without distinctly knowing in what 
this evil consists. We can see* clearly enough that we 
are by nature inclined to anger, hatred, malice, revenge, 
and many such evil feelings ; and when we have re- 
s crained these we usually are content. But such self- 
repression is not salvation. There is no element of 
safety in it apart from the motive which inspired it. 
Every one of these eyil feelings may be restrained and 
modified by its own cause; and our character be un- 
changed while our conduct is improved. This is what 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 107 

so few understand ; and what those who understand it 
so often forget. When the passions and principles 
which proceed from some ruling love, endanger its life, 
the love itself prevents them from coming in to act, 
and assumes a decent exterior in order to prevent its 
own destruction. An absorbing covetousness, for in- 
stance, if it met with no restraint, would urge a man 
to take without leave, and even with violence, whatever 
he wanted. But whoever should rob and plunder where 
he could not overreach, would incur the penalty of the 
law, lose his reputation, and defeat the attainment of 
the very* objects of this ruling love. In order to attain 
its end, therefore, his covetousness prompts him to 
avoid an open course of villainy, and assume the con- 
duct of an honest man. It curbs its own impulses in 
order to live and attain its ends and enjoy its delights. 
In this way people may undergo a change of conduct, 
even an exterior religious change, while the love from 
which their previous course of conduct proceeded is 
unremoved. They are not saved from their sins by any 
such change of conduct. The evil fire is there, ready 
to burst forth whenever and in whatever way it may 
judge for its own interests. Thus we see why morality 
alone, or any merely literal observance of the command- 
ment, will not save a man from his sins. And in see- 
ing that, we dispose one current fallacy, though it is 
not the most prevalent one, perhaps. Find now the 
radical natural love of man, and you will find that 
place in man's nature whare the change which saves 
him must begin. It is not in conduct, but in the head. 
Find the natural man's ruling love, and you have found 
the master from which all his faculties must be re- 



108 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

deemed, and the source of the sins from which he is to 
be saved. Is not man's natural love the love of self ? 
Is not the gratification of one's self, or a regard to one's 
own interest, the ruling end of life with the natural 
man? The answer is to be decided by an appeal to ex- 
perience and observation. It is a matter of fact, and 
must be determined not by reasoning, but by observa- 
tion and our conscious experience. Fortunately, the 
testimony is already in. We know very well that man 
naturally loves himself above all things ; that he loves 
the world and all that it can yield for the sake of him- 
self; that he loves honor, and seeks office, and every 
form of wealth and power for his own sake ; that he 
loves wife and children and home for his own sake. 
Every man can satisfy himself of this fact by examin- 
ing his own consciousness ; for if it is not true of him 
now, he is conscious of a change by which it ceased to 
be true. And is not the quality of this natural ruling 
love of man known by its fruits? From it proceed 
covetousness, ambition and oppression ; impatience, an- 
ger, hatred and murder, and every other evil feeling by 
which man is made a curse to himself and an en- 
emy to his fellow-men. 

Here, then, is the devil from whom we are to be 
saved: this subtle, grasping, scheming love for self. 
This is the worm that dieth not : the fire that is not 
quenched. Conform your conduct to the maxims of 
the world, and still you have only fed its flame by the 
added delight of a good name. You can not get away 
Irom it, you are never safe from its tyranny, till you are 
"transformed by the renewing of your mind." No 
power can overcome it but the power of Him, who con- 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 109 

quered death and hell. It must be remembered, with 
all its works, for a new allegiance and the service of 
God our Saviour. Let us now see how this is effected. 

We must be " born again," or " from above." That 
is one answer; we must be born of u water and the 
spirit." Is not this water the water of baptism? Not 
except as the water of baptism is the sign and memor- 
ial of that u living water " which proceedeth forth from 
the word of the Lord. Did you ever know a baptized 
man who was a bad man? Did any man's outward bap- 
tism ever wash away his love of himself and its evil af- 
fections? Was it ever to any one anything more than 
a sign and memorial to himself, and before the angels, 
that he was to purify and wash his mind and heart with 
the "water of life"? Water signifies truth: or those 
doctrinal precepts from the word of God by which we 
learn of God, or of a future state of existence, of our 
own fallen nature in the present, and the way of salva- 
tion. When we hear, understand and embrace these 
truths, so as to renounce the evil and false principles or 
the selfish and worldly notions and maxims by which 
we are actuated in our natural state, a change takes 
place in the quality and character of our minds, which 
is meant by being born of water, or born from above, 
from God, whence these living waters proceed. The 
whole Bible is full of this truth. u Wash ye; make 
you clean ; put away the evil of your doings from be- 
fore Mine eyes; cease to do evil." " O Jerusalem I wash 
thine heart from wickedness that thou mayest be saved. 
Salvation is the effect of washing the heart from wick- 
edness ; and how is this washing to be effected but by 
the truth? "Now ye are clean," said the Lord, 



110 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

" through the word which I have spoken unto you." 
" Sanctify them through Thy truth ; Thy word is truth.'' 
Except, then, we are born of the water of truth from 
the word, we can not see the kingdom of God, which 
is the antithesis of the kingdom of self; that is, with- 
out that change which is wrought in the quality of our 
minds by the exception and practical acknowledgment 
of the truth, we can not be saved. 

Man acquires the knowledge of truths by reading the 
word and meditating upon its teachings, and by faith 
in these truths he mentally adopts them as principles of 
action. When these truths are thus known, understood 
and adopted, they produce a change in the intellectual 
character of his mind by removing the false and evil 
principles which formerly ruled there. This change is 
an actual birth of a new mind. And now, turning to 
the other texts, what is this but " belief in the Lord 
Jesus Christ''? How otherwise shall a man have a be- 
lief that is worth anything? You can not have taith 
in a being of whom you know nothing. If you wish 
to believe in any one, you must approach him not bod- 
ily, but mentally; you must learn something of his 
thought, of his character, of his ability. If " coming 
to Jesus " means anything, it means this : bringing the 
mind to His truth, learning of His will, His ways, His 
power. And in no other way can faith have a basis. 
It is formed by learning the truths which the Lord 
teaches; it is itself nothing but the light of truth shin- 
ing in the mind, effecting a change in its perceptions, 
enabling it to see the character and purpose of the 
Lord, and the goodness and righteousness of His pre- 
cepts. A belief without such a basis of knowledge and 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. Ill 

consequent perception would be a mere persuasion by- 
virtue of confidence in some one else supposed to know, 
and therefore not faith in the Lord at all, but in the 
teacher. We see, therefore, that the same knowledge, 
understanding and adoption of truth is necessary to 
faith in the Lord, as is necessary to the birth of a new 
mind. These truths are not miraculously bestowed. 
They have to be learned as all truths are learned, and 
they must be sought where they are to be found, in the 
word of the Lord. They must be mentally examined, 
and compared, and weighed, as all truth must be, in 
order to be understood. They must be acknowledged, 
when understood, and adopted as principles of life. 

Whether .we say, then, " Ye must be born again," or 
il Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ," or " He that believ- 
eth and is baptized shall be saved," it comes to the 
same thing when the expressions are analyzed. Neither 
these nor any other directions can be of any use to a 
man unless they teach him to approach the Lord, to 
learn truths from the word and to live according to 
them. And neither this Scripture nor any other hold 
out to man any hope, or extend any other promise, than 
that as these truths of spiritual life are sought, under- 
stood, and adapted as principles of life, they will, under 
the spirit of the Lord, introduce a change in the radical 
quality and temper of his mind, which, like a new vital 
current from a restored heart, shall work off the disease 
of the members, and restore every human faculty and 
power to spiritual health and completeness. This birth 
of a new heart and a new mind is not bestowed with- 
out conditions; it is not a change of man's self-origin- 
ation ; it is a work of the divine truth, and it awaits 



112 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

only the proper condition of man's obedient effort. It 
does not come for any sentimental sighing and praying, 
but as the divine result of something obediently done. 
A man asks, What shall I do to be born again? You 
answer, " Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ/' And then 
he asks, How am I to get this belief ? Now, there is 
no wisdom in answering this question as it is usually 
answered. It is not worth while to say "get it," " ex- 
ercise it." How can he do that until he has learned the 
proper way uf its attainment? Saving belief is not 
self-originated. It is the child of a divine conception. 
It can be implanted in no other conditions than these : 
the knowledge, understanding and adoption of these 
truths of life which the Lord has taught. For every 
people the Lord has provided such truth suited to the 
genius of their reception. For us such truth is in the 
gospels. As we learn it, and prayerfully digest it, un- 
derstand it, and accept as a principle of life, new con- 
victions are divinely begotten in the understanding, 
and from these a new love and motive in the will, and 
from a reformation of evil practices; the whole result 
being a change in man's ruling love, and consequently 
in every motive and plan and practiee'of life. And this 
is meant when it is said : " If ye would enter into life 
keep the commandments;" "Except ye abide in me, 
and my words abide in you, ye have no life in you." 

I shall" speak hereafter of salvation as a progressive 
work, and as combat with the evils of self-love ; but it 
is enough now to see that no one of the gospel answers 
to the inquirer's question yields its full meaning until 
they are all seen to teach the same thing, to present 
each one aspect of the whole truth. To be saved is to 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 113 

be redeemed from the hell of self-love and its evil prin- 
ciples into the kingdom of the Lord's truth and right- 
eous life ; it can only be effected by a divine change in 
the form and quality of a man's mind and life; this 
change is not self- originated, but of the spirit and 
power of the Lord, and yet, in the economy of Divine 
Providence it is made to follow as the consequent of 
something that man can do. "What is it? He must 
turn his mind to the Lord, learn what He teaches, en- 
deavor to understand it, and live according to it. This 
man can do, and there are no other saving acts for him 
to do. He can learn that we are sinners, because the 
'love of self is full of evil affections; he can learn that 
these are destroying the soul ; he can learn that the pre- 
cepts of the Lord teach us to shun these evil affections, 
and act fiom love to the Lord and the neighbor; he can 
learn that in the effort to do this, man has the help of 
the Lord and all heaven. These truths are the water of 
life, in which is the spirit of life, by which he must be 
born again ; these truths are the mind and will of Jesus 
Christ, in knowing and accepting which we believe in 
Him with the heart unto righteousness ; these truths 
are the commandments ot the Lord, in doing which we 
shall enter into life eternal. 

There is nothing vague in this answer. It is clear in 
itself, consonant with reason, and in harmony not 
merely with one set of passages, but with the whole 
teaching of the gospel. It presents something definite 
for man to do. He must seek to know the Lord by 
learning His truths, and he must give the Lord a fair 
chance with him by making that truth a principle oi 
life, that is, of motive, and thought, and conduct. And 
8 



114 CONTRADICTIONS OP ORTHODOXY. 

for the rest we must wait, just as we obey the law of 
health, trusting by such obedience to secure, under the 
healing of life; our final restoration. It is the work of 
the Spirit. " The wind bloweth where it listeth, and 
thou nearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell 
whence it conieth nor whither it goeth. So is every 
one that is born of the Spirit." Amen! 



CHAPTER V. 



SERMON BY DAVID SWING. " WHAT MUST MAN DO TO BE 
SAYED? " 

[The following sermon by Prof. Swing, as an answer 
to the question, " What shall I do to inherit eternal 
life? " is grandly beautiful and sublimely true. But as 
an exponent of the present salvation — a salvation from 
sin — it is a most miserable failure, and can not, not- 
withstanding its beauty and eloquence, stand the test of 
gospel criticism. — Ed.] 

"Follow me." — Luke 9:59. "My sheep hear my 
voice and follow me." — John 10:27. 

Not long since the question was submitted to several 
representative pastors of the city, "What must man do 
to be saved? n Each gave frankly his own opinion as 
to the correct way of reaching eternal life, but so large 
is the question that I assume your willingness to listen 
to thoughts additional to what you have read in the 
daily press, or may havejieard in answer to the inquiry. 
It will not be my purpose to combat any special form 
of reply submitted by any of the brethren in this in- 
quisition of the interviewer, but only to avail myself 
of the passing interest which *such interviews always 
awaken, and thus to speak on the matter before the 
question shall have again fallen into neglect. It is re- 
markable how much the clergymen questioned diner, 

(115) 



116 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

for if there be some one definite form of belief which 
will lead to God's favor it would seem that that form 
ought to lie plainly upon the surface of the#pyord ot 
life. The different readings thus found in the Holy 
Scriptures would indicate that there is no one path to 
heaven, and that the question, " What man must do to 
be saved?" has many answers, and can not be so ana- 
lyzed and studied as to be reduced at last to some one 
formula. To my own mind, Christ gives the most uni- 
versal answer in His words, " Follow me." The reply 
may well claim some advantage from the fact that it 
comes from Christ himself. The founder of Chris- 
tianity, especially the Divine founder of a religion, 
should be supposed to know quite well the most im- 
portant doctrines of his own system of salvation. This 
idea, that a following of the virtues of their Master 
would secure eternal happiness for the disciples and the 
multitude, is exceedingly conspicuous in those ad- 
dresses in which the founder of the church was an- 
nouncing its chief principles. Recall a few of those 
sentences : " Let him deny himself and take up his cross 
and follow me." " If any man will serve me let him 
follow me." " My sheep hear my voice and follow me." 
" Sell what thou hast and follow me." " Ye which fol- 
lowed me in the regeneration, shall sit upon thrones." 
"- Blessed they who hunger and thirst after righteous- 
ness, for they shall be rilled." "Blessed the pure in 
heart." " Be ye perfect' even as your father in heaven 
is perfect." " Seek ye first the kingdom of God and 
his righteousness, and all these things shall be added 
unto you." "Whoso shall break one of the least com- 
mandments and shall teach men so, shall be called least 






CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 117 

in the kingdom of heaven, but whoso shall do them 
shall be great in the kingdom of heaven." 

The wonderfully frequent recurrence of such words 
point out those laws, or that law of salvation which was 
at least very important in the opinion of Christ, and 
the probability is that the further men wander from 
this estimate the poorer is the path of life they dis- 
cover. To the question, "What must man do to be 
saved?" the Bible answer seems to me to be, "Obey 
God faithfully and thou shalt find eternal life." There 
are indeed passages of Scripture which seem to conflict 
with such an offer of safety, and there are thousands of 
clergymen who will shudder with alarm over such a 
Christianity of "mere morality," but from amid the 
many shades of teaching found in the Old and New 
Testaments, and +rom amid the many doctrines held 
among theologians of all schools, I should rather select 
the doctrine of human righteousness as being the most 
Biblical and the most rational way of Mfe. 

(1) It harmonizes perfectly with all such expressions 
as "Believe in Christ," and "faith in Christ," and "sal- 
vation by faith," for, unless belief in Christ is only a 
secondary method of expressing the idea of imitating 
Christ, it is one of the most hollow and injurious 
phrases in the whole literature of religion. The Chris- 
tian world has long been horror-stricken at the potency 
which Luther ascribed to a simple reliance upon Christ. 
Luther said, virtually, that no sin, however aggravated, 
can injure the soul that will rely upon the atonement 
made by the Son of God; but the bold language of 
Luther only expressed clearly what lies concealed al- 
ways in that doctrine of salvation by faith, whenever 



118 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

the word faith means belief. Belief is no act of virtue 
at all in itself considered, but when belief in Christ is 
only one way of stating what the Master expressed by 
the words, " Follow Me," or lk Blessed are they that hun- 
ger and thirst after righteousness," then it harmonizes 
with the discourses of the Saviour and with that human 
reason which demands a religion of purity and all good 
works. 

(2) This salvation of righteousness harmonizes sec- 
ondly with the Biblical and rational conception of the 
term. The noble soul that can rise to any conception 
of self or dream of heaven does not wish to be saved 
in its sinfulness, but it desires to be separated from all 
such degraded condition, and to become so refashioned 
in soul that it will draw happiness from only upright 
conduct and thoughts. It does not wonder how a sin- 
ner may passibly get to heaven, but how it may cease 
to be a sinner, and may become wholly confirmed to 
the will of God. To get actually into paradise is not 
so desirable as to become worthy of it. Paul said to 
the Corinthians, " Some of you were once extortioners 
and thieves and drunkards, but ye are washed, but 
ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of 
the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God," thus 
showing us that the most remarkable thing in the di- 
vine kingdom is that men who h-ed been dark in crime 
and vice had been washed and sanctified, and thus jus- 
tified. Enjoying such a newness of thought and feel- 
ing, those Corinthians had met with a grand salvation. 

If in some manner man has found the 
depths by his sins, he must find the heights 
by a return to all inward and outward purity. 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY 119* 

The Bible says that " If we repent of our sins God is 
faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse 
us from all unrighteousness ;" "And ye know that He 
was manifested to take away our sins;" "Let no man 
deceive you : he that doeth righteousness is righteous ; " 
"He that committeth sin is of the devil." Thus in line 
after line and in page upon page, does the Bible unfold 
to us the import of that debated term, and therefore I 
conclude that righteousness is that path of life which 
seems to lead most directly to the form of salvation 
mos conspicuous in the two Testaments. 

(3) Thirdly, the salvation through morality harmon- 
izes most perfectly with the need of society. The great- 
est virtues of a nation of men are intellectual power, 
righteousness, and activity. The first of these virtues 
can perceive great ends and means, the second makes 
only righteous ends and means admissible, the third 
virtue makes man energetic to seek these honorable 
ends. It will always be true therefore that these three 
virtues, intelligence, righteousness, and activity, will be 
the three graces of a community. Of these the most 
difficult of attainment is righteousness. It is easier 
for mankind to become learned and to become indus- 
trious than to become virtuous. Integrity, the most 
needed of all qualities of man, is the most difficult of 
attainment. What so ruins the great and the small 
states of the world is the presence of all forms of sin, 
from the darkest crime to the smallest theft and false- 
hood. When, therefore, Christ comes saying, " Blessed 
are the pure in heart," and " Blessed are they that hun- 
ger and thirst after righteousness," He utters words 
which society greatly needs — words which cannot be 



120 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

surpassed for fitness. It thus appears that a salvation 
by means of morality is just what all the nations seek 
for in all the length and breadth of their being. If, 
therefore, the individual can be saved by some other 
way than by a personal uprightness, it might seem like 
a piece of good fortune for the individual, but such a 
way of eternal life would be a dreadful misfortune to 
the community. If the individual could enjoy it the 
state could not. When a citizen can find salvation 
without being righteous the nation will find ruin in the 
same form of religion which gives paradise to a man # 
But a true and valuable religion must bless all the 
forms of human existence; must bless it in its home 
in its social circle, in its commerce, in its political 
qualities and in its youth and middle life, and on its 
bed of death. And no religion will accomplish this 
universal good except one which makes each man look 
well to his own feelings and conduct. It is therefore, a 
powerful plea in favor of a salvation by morals, that 
such a way of finding peace with God is a universal 
good, leaving no home, no nation, no commerce, no 
heart unblessed. The perfect adaptation of such a meth- 
od to all the savants of society is a powerful argument 
in favor of its entire truthfulness. It would not be safe 
to society to offer man hope upon any other ground 
than that of personal conformity to God's law. 

(4) These thoughts bring us face to face before the 
defects of the old Calvanistic philosophy of salvation 
It is this that all mankind are justly doomed to eternal 
woe. Should our courts condemn ten wilful murderers 
to be executed, those ten condemned murderers would 
be an emblem of the attitude of the whole human race 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 121 

before God. The whole human race very justly stands 
doomed to endless pain. If not one single soul had 
ever found or should find heaven, God would have jus- 
tice on his side. Suppose now the Governor of the State 
should determine to pardon one of the ten murderers, 
not for any merit at all, but simply because such was 
the wish of the chief magistrate of state; that one 
would be an emblem of the elect in the Calvanistic re- 
ligion. The efforts of the other nine men to be par- 
doned would be utterly useless, as the one was pardoned 
without any merit, so any effort on the part of the other 
nine to attain any merit would be labor and hope lost. 
It would be a wonderful charity on the part of men to 
call this a "way of salvation," for it is not a method by 
which any soul on earth may reach his Father's tace in 
peace. It is the exact opposite, it is a closing up of 
any road as being open to man. Salvation is issued to 
a few without consulting the few and afterward the 
Holy Spirit is sent to convert those few and inform 
them of their election by the Almighty to a place in 
paradise. For such a theory the world has no possible 
use, for what mankind demands is some general law of 
salvation by which any soul may find happiness and 
peace here and hereafter. How an elect person may be 
saved is not the question. That is too narrow an in- 
quiry. But how man, any man, may come to a blessed 
hope of a happy life beyond this, is the problem of in- 
terest and worth. 

In political economy no writer has ever written down 
the lottery as a source of universal wealth. It is not 
given in Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations," nor m 
Spencer's or Carey's "Social Science." The wheel may 



122 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

confer a sudden wealth upon a poor man, may make a 
coachman able to buy out his employer, but the 'wheel' 
is not a general way of getting rich, for by as much 
as it opens a way for one man, it closes it to oth- 
ers. Should all the citizens of our land quit work, and 
buy lottery tickets, our nation would be ruined in thir- 
ty days, because the lottery is not a law of wealth, but 
only the sport of a few amid heaps of money found in 
some other way. This will illustrate my meaning when 
I say that Calvanism offers no way of salvation. It is 
only a distribution of tickets in some corners of the 
world, by which papers a few only will draw the pearls 
of great price. To affirm that such a scheme is no plan 
of salvation at all, that it possesses no trace of merit, is 
to affirm # what almost all the human family has of late 
years been happy to declare; and from such a dark 
estimate of God and Christ as this old notion involves, 
it is sweet to return to the thought that the law of sal_ 
vation by morality is not a lottery, but, like the law of 
industry, it lies open for all. It says, "Blessed are all 
the pure in heart." 

(5) We come now to the question, what part do bap- 
tism and the atonement and the divinity of Christ per- 
form in this salvation of man? The answer is very 
easy and clear. In this domain of thougnt there are to 
be seen two very distinct questions : the one is, What 
must man do to be saved? the other is, What must God 
or Christ, or God and Christ do that such a sinful being 
may be admitted to favor? The former of these is the 
inquiry which must concern man. A confusion here 
has deeply injured the virtue and usefulness of the 
church. Men have spent years in attempting to find 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 123 

what the Trinity was doing instead of spending years 
in making actual their own righteousness. Against 
such an abandonment of human duty, and such an en- 
tanglement of heaven and earth, may we not enter a 
protest in the following words: "Baptism and church 
membership and communion, are human duties, not 
duties which all must perceive or be lost, but duties to 
be regarded by all minds that enjoy means of informa- 
tion about them ; but as a means of salvation they will 
never rank along with an obedience of the moral law. 
They are rather the signs of a Christian than the causes 
of one. They are the flags that tell where the patriots 
are banded into an army, but they are not the patriot- 
ism itself. England is a baptized nation of church 
members, a nation of communicants, but these forms 
have not conferred any moral merit of great degree * 
WouM you not rather behold a nation of righteous men 
and women than a baptized nation? All the assassins 
in Spaiu, and all the beggars and thieves and liber- 
tines of Italy and Mexico have been held up in love be- 
fore the baptismal font, and most of them took the 
communion in early youth, but their final condition 
points out in an unmistakable manner the one way of 
safety — daily obedience of the moral law. Baptism 
and communion may fail you, but that daily obedience 
will hold you close to the love and hel of the 
Almighty. 

Having thus glanced at some of tne minor rules of 
Christianity, let us also protest against the theology of 
those who exhaust upon analysis of the atonement time 
and study they should give to their own characters and 
works. It is of no importance to man what kind of a 



124 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

bargain — if we dare use such a term — was made 
between the Father and Son regarding the rescue of 
humanity. Many different views are held by those 
who read and love the same Bible. Which view shall 
at last be found to be true is of no importance, for 
man's safety does not lie in his possession of such in- 
formation, but it lies in his purifying his own heart 
from sin, and in thus getting ready to drink in infor- 
mation in a higher life. It is sufficient for man to 
know that through the life and death of Christ the 
human family was earned over from a condition of 
unrelenting penalties to a world where a constant hun- 
gering after righteousness would satisfy the Supreme 
Judge, and where many a sin might be washed away 
by penitent tears. If man has by the several offices of 
Christ been led into a Kingdom of God's grace where 
a relative, human perfection becomes a beautiful piety 
in God's sight, then this is all man need know about 
the mediatorial work of the Lord. Knowing that much 
he must begin to purify himself, lest he should neglect 
so great a salvation, for what a Saviour is Christ if He 
has made heaven possible to those who struggle to do 
right ! 

In the common realm of law, repentance will not 
help acquit a criminal. Nor will a partial obedience 
of a command be accepted as a full obedience, but if 
we pass from statute law into the home of educated 
and wise and kind parents we there will find that sin- 
cere sorrow revealed by a child over some offence does 
help to acquit, and that also an earnest effort to 
obey the father and mother, even though the effort at 
times be short, is accepted by the parent as akin to 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 125 

perfection, the effort itself being so beautiful. In this 
home we thus see the empire of grace. And if Christ 
has turned God's empire into such a house for all us 
children, he has become the best hope of each soul. 
The word "grace " involved from its earliest origin the 
idea of an easy and relenting motion. It was the 
name of the horses which drew the chariot of the sun 
in those Sanscrit ages which lay even back of the 
Greeks. Those u Grats " pranced across the heavens 
with their feet resting upon air or white clouds. They 
made no noise. Every motion was full of beauty and 
peace. The Greeks and Latins adopted the term and 
signified the easy motion of man, and then by degrees 
a gentleness of mind and heart, and thus, by a slow 
advance was the word made ready for Christianity, 
where it was to mean the gentle movements of the 
Almighty, the soft footsteps of a God among those less 
wise and less powerful than Himself. To be saved by 
grace means, therefore, to be saved not by the absolute 
perfection of man, but by the condescension and 
affectionate concessions of God. What man need 
know, is not whether Christ brought man such favor 
through the Calvinistic notion of the atonement or 
through the Arminian theory or through the moral 
conception of that work, but what man must know and 
act upon is the fact that he lives in a world of grace 
and has nothing to do but to cultivate his own right- 
eousness. He has no theological engimas to solve. He 
must do his part in the world of conduct as faithfully 
as his Creator will do His in the world of love and for- 
giveness. In this theory of salvation no theory ot the 
atonement is superseded, except the theory of any who 



126 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

denounce all human virtue as forming part of human 
safety. With all modern ideas held by Congregation- 
alists and Methodists and Episcopalians and Baptists 
and the New School branch of the Presbyterians it 
harmonizes perfectly, for in all these forms of theology 
the atonement is an affair of the Deity and virtue the 
affair of man. 

(6) Let us now come to the sixth argument or reflec- 
tion over this salvation of righteousness. It most 
merits the dignity of being called "a law of eternal 
life." The doctrines that man is in any way saved by 
baptism, sprinkling, or immersion, or by church mem- 
bership, or by believing intellectually in Christ, or by 
any rite or form, (or that any one of these forms is an 
essential element in the eternal hope, are defective) , 
because they pass by in awful neglect the countless 
millions who died before there were any such rites or 
forms of belief, and other millions who, having lived 
since the Advent, have never in any way even heard of 
a Christ, or a baptism or a communion. In raising the 
question, u What man must do to be saved," are we to 
be satisfied with some response that will meet in some 
way the need of a little group of human beings that 
happen to have a New Testament in their hands? 
Thousands of millions of persons died before Christ 
came, thousands of millions have died since without 
having heard of Him, and amid this inconceivable mul- 
titude there were many who obeyed well their Deity 
and some lofty ones there were whose writings read as 
though they had been composed by a St. John or an 
a'Kempis. How can we ask " how man may be saved," 
and then bring in a reply that is too recent to apply to 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 127 

the long career of man, and too narrow to cover over 
all continents and islands. The Romanites say " Man 
is saved through the church, 1 ' but unfortunately 
about forty thousand millions of men died before their 
church opened its doors. The Protestants say, " Man 
is saved through our light and rites and doctrines," and 
their answer fails from insufficiency. It cares for a few 
individuals and overlooks the human race. Both 
theories must be cast out as insufficient tor mankind, 
and as unworthy of God. 4 Up from such a valley of 
imperfection rises that salvation by earnest and con- 
stant morality unfolded by Christ in the words "Blessed 
they that hunger and thirst after righteousness." It 
rises like that cliff of the poet, which " midway leaves 
the storm," and piercing through fog and darkness, 
finds at last for its head an " eternal sunshine." Here 
we have a law. Like the law of light and warmth^ it 
is handed to the human race. It offered its hope to 
Abraham and Moses, it equally offered its hope to Job 
outside of the Hebrew world, and to devout Hindoos 
and the pure minded Magi of the East and to many an 
Egyptian and Greek and Roman who loved God far 
away from where David sang his psalms, and long 
before Jesus was born in Bethlehem. In the universal- 
ity of this law we find the image of God, for He is not 
a Father of America or of England or of a group of 
men here and there, but He is the Father of the world, 
^nd all its wave of life with its smiles of laughter and 
its misty tears has always been spread out at His feet. 
(7) We come now yet to one more reflection — that 
this assertion that man is to be saved by his struggle 
after righteousness and this extending of hope so far 



128 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 



beyond the confines of gospel teaching, do not neutral- 
ize the doctrine that Christ is the Saviour. On the 
opposite, it is the only theory which makes Christ a 
Saviour of man. The old school Presbyterians deny 
that Christ is the Saviour of man. He is the Saviour 
of the elect. And in a sense other denominations set 
geographical and temporal bounds to the future hope, 
but against these this salvation by human character at 
large makes the relation of Christ cover all the world 
equally. He has made it a world of grace for all — a 
home where the Father comes to all with condescension 
and concession. If the Man of Bethlehem made this 
a world of grace for only those who should hear of the 
atonement, for only those who might be born in the 
shadow of a church, then was His intercession modified 
for causes which the intellect and heart cannot under- 
stand. Oh no ! the grace of God flows far beyond the 
boundaries of the human acquaintance with the reasons 
for such overflow, just as the Nile was wont to water 
the empire of Egypt long before those who grew rich 
from its gift knew trom whence the stream came. Our 
children gather blossoms and love them long before they 
can think of a Designer, and they play in the Spring sun 
shine many a year before they can stand in solemn 
meditation in presence of Him who said, "Let there be 
light." So out in the great moral and spiritual field 
the children of men have reached out far and have 
plucked the never withering flowers of life without 
knowing how they came to hang within the reach of 
sinful hands; they have rejoiced in virtue and its ulti- 
mate hope without knowing that the sunshine around 
them came streaming from a hidden fountain of grace. 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY 129 

If we say anything else than this and limit the coming 
paradise to only those who have learned all about 
Christ in these few years, then salvation is not founded 
upon the pitiable condition of man and his longing for 
a reunion of loved ones beyond the grave, but it gravi- 
tates around the desire of Christ that all the world 
should either praise him or be lost. To a shipwrecked 
crew we do not send out the word that they must per- 
sonally praise us or do without our aid. We think oi 
them and not ot self; and so we must not cast upon a 
divine nature a condition that would shame man, but 
we must declare the kingdom of grace to be flowing 
around all human souls which make righteousness the 
aim of this life. Blessed they indeed and above all 
who have found out much about their Heavenly Father 
and about His church and baptism and who have seen 
the Man of Sorrows carrying His cross! but blessed 
also those who have died without such a vision, but 
who daily walked m the path of duty, looking with 
hope up to God. Finding the most possible of right- 
eousness here, they can learn in eternity what it was 
that made the imperfect but sincere morality of earth 
so full of merit aud touching eloquence before the 
King of Kings. 

[There is much in this sermon to admire and com- 
mend, for it touches the tenderest cords of human 
sympathy and love.— Ed.] 



CHAPTER V 



"man's part in salvation.'— a sermon by rev. dr. 
h. w. thomas. 

The Rev. Dr. Thomas, pastor of the Centenary church, 
preached a sermon last evening on " Man's Part in Sal- 
vation," taking the following Scripture for his text: 

What must I do do be saved? — Acts 16 : 30. 

In the Times of last Sunday there was a long letter 
from some ideal character representing himself as an 
inquirer, or a seeker of religion, and in that state of 
mind as having gone to different clergymen for advice, 
the result of which was to leave him in still greater 
uncertainty. The letter was made the basis of inter- 
views with a number of our pastors of the different 
churches. The result of these was not entirely satis- 
factory in the sense of clearing the subject of all con- 
fusion of ideas, and making it so plain that all real in- 
quirers might easily find their way. 

I have very little sympathy with a captious or fault- 
rinding spirit, or one who is seeking difficulties that he 
may glory in them, or make them an excuse for unbe- 
lief, or hold them up to the detriment of others. But 
I have the deepest sympathy for all who want to know 
the way of salvation, but hesitate because of uncer- 
(130) 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 131 

tainty, and are possibly confused because of the many 
opinions and teachings with which they come in con- 
tact. Such a question as that of the soul's salvation 
must ever be one of great moment to all thoughtful 
minds. None but the light and unthinking, or the 
most hardened, or the absolutely unbelieving, can treat 
it lightly or with indifference. Praying for divine 
guidance, I shall try to present the subject in such a 
way as may be helpful to all and hurtful to none, 
though one can hardly hope to entirely satisfy every 
class and condition of mind and heart. 

We are probably all agreed in this : That man has 
something to do in securing his own salvation. This 
conviction seems to rest partly upon the nature and the 
analogy of the case, and partly upon an inward sense 
of mind, as well as the general teachings of the Bible. 
We find that in the wants of our being below the spirit- 
ual we have a part to perform. God gives the earth and 
the seed, and the general conditions necessary to enable 
us to provide for the wants of the body, and then leaves 
it for us to make use of these or starve. And so He 
gives us minds capable of learning and understanding 
truth, and He surrounds us with a world of truth, and 
then leaves us to seek out and use this truth, or to 
dwell in ignorance. And so He has given us natures 
capable of right and wrong; He has given us a law of 
life by which to live, and has placed within us a con- 
science, or moral sense, that stands as an ever-watchful 
sentinel and guide of the soul, warning it of the ap- 
proach or presence of danger, and suggesting and lead- 
ing on in the way of innocence, and peace, and safety. 
And it is the simplest dictate of common sense that we 



132 CONTRADICTIONS OP ORTHODOXY. 

should use the means of spiritual life; that we should 
do our part in matters of religion just as we do in the 
things of the mind and body. And m both eases there 
is an inward longing, a sense of need and of possible sup- 
ply, to prompt us to effort. These are the common 
convictions of the race, civilized and uncivilized; and 
in all Christian lands, whatever be the theory of men 
or churches, every one feels that there is some respon- 
sibility upon himself in matters of the soul; that he 
has something to do to secure the soul's best life here 
and hereafter. And no one can read the Bible and not 
have this conviction still more deeply rooted. The fact 
of duty is on every page. The fact of rewards and 
punishments for right and wrong is so a part of the 
general teachings of the Scriptures as to be felt and 
confessed by all. 

Having seen that we are agreed in the fact that man 
has something to do in securing his salvation, it seems 
important now to try to form some tolerably clear con- 
ception of what salvation is, or of what it is to be 
saved, that we may with better understanding consider 
the means to that end. Unless we can agree as to what 
salvation is, we shall hardly agree as to how it is to be 
obtained, and I am sorry to say that, simple as this 
question may seem, it would probably be difficult to 
give a definition that would find a full acceptance with 
all. 

We may possibly be able to compass the whole sub- 
ject by speaking of it under several different ideas; as a 
formal or outward salvation; and an inward or real sal- 
vation ; and as an earthly or present life salvation ; and 
a heavenly or eternal salvation. 



CONTRADICTION'S OF ORTHODOXY. 133 

Looking at the subject in this way, we have, then 
first the outward or formal salvation. By this I mean 
salvation according to the several church ideas ; or we 
may call it regulation, or theological, salvation. That 
is, it conforms outwardly to the prescribed plan or 
forms and beliefs of some church. Here there is this 
broad, general difference to be noted between the posi- 
tions of the Roman Catholic and Protestant faiths. 
Romanism claims to stand in such relation to salvation 
that it must be dispensed through the church. The re- 
lation is much the same as that of the citizen to the 
civil laws and courts. The citizen cannot act outside 
of the law ; he can obtain a marriage license or a de- 
cree, or have a deed recorded, only by the proper offi- 
cers of the law. And so, as salvation is only through 
the sacraments and ordinances of the church, and as 
these and their administration are in the hands of the 
church, they can be had only of the priests, ^r those 
authorized to administer or bestow them. In 'his 
scheme the church is a necessity. It has power to open 
or to shut the do.^r ; to give, or to withhold, The Prot- 
estant view is entirely different. Protestants hold that 
the church is of divine appointment, and a help to the 
souls of men, but in no such sense that they are not 
themselves kings and priests unto God. and may each 
one go -directly to God for himself, without the media- 
tion of any earthly priest or sacrament. There is, how- 
ever, what may be called a formal salvation, or a salva- 
tion according to prescribed regulations, in the several 
Protestant churches. It is not the same in scarcely any 
two. One branch of the Baptist church says to the in- 
quirer, " Repent and be baptized for the remission of 



134 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

sins ; " the other branches of that church say that re- 
pentance and conversion are prerequisites to baptism. 
In the one baptism is a means to an end j in the other 
it is a sign of a grace already received. They agree in 
this, however, that immersion is the only proper mode 
— that the unimmersed are not baptized, and that adults 
are the only proper subjects; and hence that infant 
baptism is invalid. All the other Protestant churches 
hold to the validity of baptism in infancy, and some ot 
them, as the Methodists and others, lay no stress upon 
the mode, placing the emphasis upon the spirit and in- 
tent of the ordinance instead of the form. There would 
be a difference also in the sense in which Christ is to be 
believed in. One, as the Calvinists, would say that 
Christ bore our actual sins, was literally punished for 
them, and that His righteousness is to be literally im- 
puted to us. Some Methodists would say the same 
thing ; others, and myself among them, would say that 
Christ is such a manifestation of the love and mercy of 
God as to lead to sorrow for sin, to draw us to Him, and 
to enable us to trust in that love and mercy for pardon 
and acceptance; and that we must love and serve and 
obey for ourselves. And others may have still different 
views of Christ and peculiar forms and observances, 
but all these things relate to what may be called the 
formal statements about religion and the usages of the 
church. The good that one receives from them depends 
largely upon the state of mind and heart in which he 
uses them. If he be merely passive, accepts them, goes 
through them without any real deep inward purpose, 
the effect upon his real character will not be deep. 
But if with earnestness and sincerity he accept any of 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 135 

these formal statements, and uses any of these various 
observances, he will be helped thereby to the inward 
life. One's salvation does not depend upon the tact of 
having been born in this or that church, or having been 
taught to believe in this or that system of faith. If he- 
sincerely follows the best light he has ; if he believes 
what to him seems true, and does what to him seems 
right; if he has the spirit of faith and the purpose of 
righteousness, he will be saved, whether in one church 
or another, whether he be Jew or Christian, Romanist 
or Protestant. That is to say, God looks to the heart 
and the life; to what one reaPy is; and not to a name 
or form. 

And this brings us now to look at the inward, the 
real salvation. This may be said to be two-fold — a sal- 
vation from sin, and a salvation into righteousness. It 
diners from a formal salvation in this, that it is subjec- 
tive ; it relates to a work done for us, and in us, by the 
power and mercy of God. It is to come into a state ei 
pardon, of regeneration, of holiness in heart and life. 
By willful transgression of the law of God the sinner 
comes under guilt; is condemned by the law of right- 
eousness; is condemned by the holiness and justice of 
God. God can not love sm ; He can not approve sin ; 
His very nature must condemn it. He may, and does, 
love and pity the sinner ; but He is angry, displeased 
in a holy sense, with his sins. Salvation means pardon, 
forgiveness; the sinner is treed from the sense of con- 
demnation; the displeasure of God is changed to His 
favor and smile; the prodigal is welcomed home. 
" Thine anger is turned away, and now Thou comfort- 
est me." Salvation means further a deliverance from 



136 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 



the power and the corruption of sin. The sinner is un- 
der the power of sin; it rules him as his master; he is 
the servant of sin ; obeys its dictations. He is also un- 
der its corruption ; that is, his nature and will, yielding 
to sin, are corrupted by it. This is more than a natural 
depravity ; it is an acquired depravity. By nature we 
are not sinners in any active sense; we can not be sin- 
ners until we have sinned. We inherit a weakened and 
diseased nature, a nature wanting in good and prone to 
evil. We have in us by nature both good and evil ten- 
dencies — a nature capable of either or both. In some, 
the good or the evil has a stronger natural preponder- 
ance than in others. Each one is responsible only for 
that which he has by inheritance. He is not to be 
blamed or praised for it. But in each one there is a 
struggle between the higher and lower parts of being 
for the mastery. When one yields to evil, practices 
evil, he naturally comes under its power ; is assimilated 
more and more to it. He may come to love evil, to 
pursue it as a delight. Now, salvation means that the 
inward nature of man is to be so renewed, so made 
new, or changed, that on the one hand the evil nature is 
overcome and the good is strengthened and lifted up. 
I believe that there is an actual change wrought by the 
power of God; a regeneration, in the sense that the 
love of God, the life cf God, comes into the heart, and 
becomes a part of man's life, so that the renewed soul 
has something more than education, or culture, or a 
formal observance of rules. It has the life of God 
within, and hence is a new creature, created anew in 
Christ. The conscience, the divine that is in all by na- 
ture—that which is spirit within us— is quickened by 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 137 

the spirit of God, takes on a new life and power,be- 
comes related anew and more fully to God by receiving 
into itself the nature of God ; and hence it is that it is 
said we are "begotten," that we are " born not of flesh 
or of the will of the flesh, but of God." This is the 
one central idea of the whole Bible — the highest idea — 
that man is to become pure within, to become like God, 
and that not by culture and the observance of rules of 
life alone, but by the gift of God —the coming of the 
divine life to the heart. Salvation is in this sense, of 
course, radical. It goes to the very roots of a man's 
being; it saves from selfishness, from vain ambition, 
from hatred, from anger, from lust, from all falseness 
and injustice and cruelty; it makes man divine within; 
it does not, however, remove him from probation, from 
the power of temptation ; but it exalts the divine with- 
in him, so that he lives by conscience — a conscience to 
God and to man ; and his steady purpose is to rule all 
his appetites and passions and affections from this lofty 
standpoint. This is what we call the warfare, the life of 
the Christian — to bring all his powers into harmony 
with God. With time and growth this life of God in 
the soul becomes so dominant that the whole nature is 
set forward like a sweet and gently-flowing stream or 
river in its onward movement in righteousness. The 
soul lives by the power of love. It is no longer ruled 
by fear. It lives in the love of truth and justice and 
honor; it lives in the love of God and man. This is 
salvation. It is character centered within. It is the 
love of God and goodness for their own sake. It is far 
removed from any merely formal righteousness, and 



138 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 



from being honest for fear of the penitentiary, or reli- 
gious for fear of hell. 

Salvation in this world, then, is simply being saved 
from sin; saved from its guilt, its pollution, and its 
power; saved from dishonesty and falsehood, and all 
wrong-doing; saved from the inward desire to dc 
wrong; and being filled with the love of truth, and 
right, and goodness — the love of God and man. 

And this leads us now to say a word about salvation 
after death. There is a view of after-death salvation 
that corresponds quite naturally with the formal or 
outward idea of salvation. It is this : Observe certain 
rules, believe, or say you believe, certain things, and 
you will get to a certain place called Heaven. A truer 
and deeper idea, however, is to make salvation a state of 
the heart and life ; to conceive of the kingdom ot heaven 
as being within, and of salvation after death as being 
a state o£the soul begun on earth and carried over into 
the life beyond. Heaven is a place, but that place is 
wherever the pure in heart are. It is the love and the 
enjoyment of all that is true and pure and good ; the 
vision of God, and the endless pursuits of righteousness. 
Getting into any place, as a palace, or a beautiful city, 
would not be Heaven, unless the soul were suited to its 
life and companionships. The Heaven that a soul 
reaches after death will correspond to the Heaven that 
he has in his soul before death. And so the hell to 
which a soul will go will be the hell of its inward states of 
corruption and guilt, its sense of the loss of good, and the 
presence and companionships of evil. The displeasure 
of God, and the torments of a guilty conscience, and 
a sense of inward ^uilt and corruption will make hell 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 139 

anywhere, and the law is the same after death as be- 
fore; the same in all worlds. 

Having gained some definite idea of what salvation 
is, let us now try to answer the question of our text : 
"What must I do to be saved?" And let us give to the 
inquiry a broader application than to the Philippian 
jailer who asked the question. Let us make it the 
question of all souls, the question of mankind, and seek 
to give an answer broad enough to cover all cases. Such 
an answer must, of course, be general in its nature; and 
then peculiar cases may be helped by special direc- 
tions. 

We have, then, the broad question before us : How 
shall souls be saved from sin, from wrong- 
doing, and come into purity and good lives? 
What does the Bible say? What does God re- 
quire? If we turn to Deut. 10 : 12, we find these words : 
"And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require 
of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all 
His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord thy 
God with all thy heart and with all thy soul; to keep 
the commandments of the Lord thy God and His stat- 
utes, which I have commanded thee this day for thy 
good?" In the sixth chapter of Micah, and eighth 
verse, we read : " He hath showed thee, O man, what 
is good ; and what doth the Lord require of thee but to 
do justly, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with 
thy God." In Ez. 18:21-22, the Lord says: "If the 
wicked will turn from all his sins which he hath com- 
mitted, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is 
lawful and right, he shall surely live ; he shall not die. 
All his transgressiors shall not be mentioned unto him ^ 



140 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 



in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live. v 
Isaiah 55 : 7 says : " Let the wicked forsake his way, 
and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him re- 
turn unto the Lord and He will have mercy upon him, 
and to our God and he will abundantly pardon." The 
wise man says : " Fear God and keep his command- 
ments, for this is the whole duty of man." Jesus says, 
Matt. 19:17: "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the 
commandments," and he makes the sum of all to be in 
loving God and our neighbor. The apostle says that 
" Love is the fulfilling of the law." 

Now, in all these Scriptures there is not only obedi- 
ence to a rule or commandment, but there is also an 
inward state of the soul. And in the Old Testament we 
find the prayer for a " clean heart," and the promise 
that the heart shall be made pure, that the stony heart 
shall be taken away, and the law of God be written, not 
on tables of stone alone, but in the heart. Jesus places 
special emphasis upon having the heart clean — the in- 
ward motives and desires pure before God. And the 
whole Scriptures teach that if men forsake evil and 
turn to God they shall have pardon, and a new life 
within. Thus the Bible makes religion a life, a king- 
dom, within, and a life of obedience without; and it 
offers this life to all who in sincerity turn from sin to 
give themselves to God. 

What, then, must a sinner do, and what must he be- 
lieve, in order to be saved? He must repent of sin, turn 
in sorrow from sin, forsake it. He must turn to that 
which is right — to the law of God, and try to obey it. He 
must bring his heart and his life to God, and in prayer 
ask Him for pardon, and for inward cleansing and life; 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 141 

and then he must go forward in obeying God's law and 
in doing good as best he can. Now all are agreed in 
this; but the question that is so constantly thrust 
into the foreground in our day, and over which there is 
so much debate and confusion and division, is what 
must a man believe in order to be saved? 

The answer to this depends upon how much faith 
and just what particular kind of faith, it takes to save 
him. The salvation is the thing we are seeking, and if 
any one has this he has faith enough to be saved, for he 
is already saved in this life, and that is the beginning 
of salvation hereafter. Suppose one should say that it 
is necessary to believe in the Deity of Christ to be 
saved ; or to believe in an expiatory atonement ; or in 
the Trinity ; or in verbal inspiration ; or endless pun- 
ishment. And then he finds persons w T ho are saved, 
who live the life of God, but do not believe some, or all, 
or even any of these things. What is he to do in such 
a case? And there are not a few who live and walk in 
the peace and the love of God who do not believe these 
things. Shall we, to save our system, deny the work of 
God in these souls? Shall we say these are nQt saved? 
Or shall those who are saved without believing those 
things, say that others who do believe them are not 
saved? Certainly not. What God looks to in faith is 
the spirit of faith ; the desire to know the truth, and to 
be led by it, rather than the fullness and details of the 
things believed. If one has this desire, this spirit, he 
is a believer in the sight of God, even though he may 
have doubts as to the existence of that great Being. 
One may be a seeker, a beginner in faith as well as 
in holiness; and God permits probation, a time of 



142 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 



learning and trying in faith, as well as in works. If 
any one has faith enough in God to come to Him in 
prayer, to trust his life to the Divine keeping ; faith 
enough to obey God's laws ; and if his faith leads him 
to obedience and love and trust, he has faith enough to 
be saved ; for his faith has already put him in the way 
of salvation. Jesus said, " Have faith in God." James 
says: u Thou believest that there is one God; thou 
doest well." Paul says: "He that cometh to God 
must believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder of 
them that diligently seek him." Now, in these Scrip- 
tures the emphasis is placed upon believing in God; 
and in the simple fact that He is a rewarder of them 
who seek to do His will. 

But some may say, How about faith in Christ? Can 
a man be saved without faith in Christ? That depends 
upon what you mean by faith in Christ. If you mean 
that one must believe in the doctrines He taught ; the 
doctrine of a heavenly father, the doctrine of purity, of 
love to God and man; and so believe them as to come 
under their influence, and be led to seek them and to 
live by them : if that is what is meant by believing in 
Christ, one certainly cannot attain to such a salvation 
without belief enough to carry his life in that way. But 
if you mean by faith in Christ, faith in some system of 
theology about Christ, involving the Trinity, and a 
penal substitutional atonement and imputed righteous- 
ness ; if that is what it is to believe in Christ, then I 
have no hesitation in saying that such a faith is not 
essential. And I think great injury is done to religion, 
and many s« »uls are hurt and hindered by pressing sys- 
tems of special theology in to the foreground, and 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 143 

urging acceptance of them as the only condition of 
salvation. What the world needs is salvation: not sys- 
tem about salvation. But earnest, narrow men get 
hold of these systems, and come before audiences and 
talk about a " finished salvation " and a " perfected 
righteousness " in Christ, meaning that Christ suffered 
man's penalty, and obeyed in his stead, and that all 
there is to do is to accept of this righteousness. Many 
find it impossible to believe this, and are hurt and dis- 
couraged in their faith and hopes of salvation. Faith 
in Christ, to me, is rather faith in the manifestation of 
God to men in that blessed life and person. To me, 
the Father comes near in Christ ; comes in love and 
mercy to call me back from sin, and to enable me to 
trust in that love for pardon and holiness. To me, 
Christ rises up as a reveiacion of God; and in Him I 
see the Father's face and hear His voice. What men 
need is the faith that draws them to God; that fills 
them with sorrow for sin and love of holiness ; a faith 
that carries their whole life into the spirit and life and 
work of Christ. 

Do you ask, then, what to do to be saved? I answer, 
keep the commandments of God. Repent ot sin ; pray 
for a pure heart. Do right from day to day. Trust in 
the Lord God. Trust in the love and mercy and power 
of God, as revealed in Christ. Believing in this, you 
believe in Christ. He is the way to the Father, and He 
is one with the Father. Don't wait until every diffi- 
culty of belief is settled. If you believe in God, in 
truth and right and love and prayer, begin where you 
are, and there is a Holy Spirit, a divine guidance, that 
will lead you. To me, the beginning of a religious life 



144 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 






caine in a knowledge of sin through the law of God. I 
sought mercy for the past; I sought a new heart, that 
I might love God and keep His law. The gospel, the . 
good news that a Savior had come, that God so loved" 
the world as to give His Son, won my heart and enabled 
me to trust in such a Father, such a Saviour. I soon 
found pardon and peace and hope. My heart was filled 
with unspeakable love and joy. That was my faith 
when, as a mere youth, I first sought the Lord, thirty 
years ago. It is my faith to-day; and I know that the 
ever-blessed God, whose love brought the Saviour from 
above to die on Calvary, is drawing every heart. He is 
calling to all. He turns no sincere soul away 
because of honest doubts or honest beliefs. He will 
save all who put their trust in Him and seek to do His 
will. And, oh ! blessed is the salvation that saves from 
guilt and sin : that makes the heart new ; that fills it 
with love to all. Blessed will be the salvation that 
lifts a soul above death and crowns it with endless life, 
amid the songs and joy and beauty of the heavenly 
world, 



CHAPTER VII. 



REVIEW OF DR. H. W. THOMAS' SERMON. 

The above sermon by the Rev. Dr. H. W. Thomas, of 
the Centenary M. E. Church, is one of the ablest dis- 
cussions of the Salvation question, from an orthodox 
standpoint, that it has ever been my privilege to read. 
The general plan and analytical arrangement of the dis- 
course are admirable. The Doctor has treated the sub- 
ject in a very systematic manner, and has attempted an 
exhaustive discussion of the whole theme. So exhaus- 
tive is his discussion, that he has included within his 
classifications of salvation some that are entirely un- 
known, at least not recognized, in the gospel of Jesus 
Christ. 

Some portions of the sermon are true — grandly, 
beautifully, and sublimely true ; but as a Scriptural ex- 
position of what a sinner must do to be sa^ed, in the 
gospel sense, it is a most lamentable failure. I heart- 
ily endorse the first proposition made by the Doctor, 
\~iz. : "That man has something to do in his own sal- 
ration ;" and also the able arguments brought forth to 
sustain this doctrine of human agency; but, when he 
comes to the second part of the subject, in which he 
attempts to define what salvation is, I am compelled to 
take issue with the learned gentleman. It will be seeu 
(145) 



146 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 



that the Doctor mentions in his classification four dif- 
ferent salvations, viz. : — 

1st, An outward, or formal salvation; 

2d, An inward, or real salvation; 

3d, An earthly, or present salvation ; and 

4th, An eternal, or Heavenly salvation. 

I cannot find in the Bible any allusion whatever to 
an outward or formal salvation ; neither is there such a 
salvation known to the Scriptures of divine truth, as an 
" inward " or " real " salvation. 

In point of fact, there can be but one salvation, and 
that a deliverance from sin and all its consequences. 
There may be, I readily admit, successive steps in this 
saving process, to which the word salvation can be very 
appropriately applied ; but these steps are not different 
salvations — but only different stages of the one great 
salvation. 

The word "salvation," as shown in another part of 
this book, is sometimes employed to represent different 
conditions of mankind relative to the kingdom of God ; 
but those conditions are parts of the great whole. It 
is used in two senses only, so far as I am able to dis- 
cover. First, it often stands for the remission of sins ; 
second, it is employed to indicate that state of moral 
purity and eternal security which the finally redeemed 
shall enjoy beyond this life. 

These are not two separate salvations, but the begin- 
ning and ending of one great and ever blessed redemp- 
tion from sin. One is a salvation from past and pres- 
ent sins; the other a deliverance Irom all future conse- 
quences of sin. One is pardon, the other redemption or 
deliverance. All this theological hair-splitting about 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 14^ 

"formal salvation" and "inward salvation," &c, be- 
longs to Ashdod, not to Zion. It is not the pure lan- 
guage of the gospel ; but rather the gibberish of scho- 
lastic orthodoxy, and tends to confuse by the multitude 
of creeds, and darken counsel by meaningless and un- 
scriptural phiases. What earthly, or even heavenly, 
advantage, I would like to know, can there be in these 
extended and confusing divisions of this sublimely 
simple theme? Why not adopt the nomenclature of 
the gospel of Christ, rather than the intricate dialect ot 
the schools? What Christ said of the perverters of the 
old law, may with equal propriety and truth be said of 
modern orthodoxy : " Ye have made the word of God 
of non-effect by your traditions." 

After the Doctor defined salvation, as above, he next 
proceeded to answer the all-important question, " What 
shall I do to be saved?" The conditions which he men- 
tions are all correct and Scriptural, if intended to apply 
to what a man must do to inherit eternal life, after first 
securing the pardon of his sins by obedience to the law 
of pardon. But the Doctor treats the subject of remis- 
sion of sins with seeming indifference ; whereas it is the 
all-important primary question. A man must be par- 
doned — forgiven — before he can come into that saved 
state where he can comply with those secondary lessons 
of a Christian life with advantage and success. 

In other words, a man must be naturalized, brought 
into the kingdom of God, initiated into the Church of 
Christ, be made a member of Christ's body, before he 
is prepared to obey the second lessons of the gospel, or 
claim any of the rights, honors and emoluments of the 
kingdom of heaven. 



148 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 



This gospel initiation, or, as Paul expresses it in Col. 
1:13, "translation from the kingdom of darkness into 
the kingdom of God's dear Son," Dr. Thomas utterly 
ignores in his sermon. The Doctor teaches the very 
doctrine that I attributed to him in my first letter to 
The Times; which shows that I did not in the least mis- 
represent his position or misstate his views, as some 
one has affirmed. In the latter part of his sermon, he 
reaffirms and elaborates what he said in the interview 
with The Times reporter, viz., " that we are saved by 
character." Now, I desire to show that a man may 
have a very good character, even an unexceptionable 
character, pure and spotless, against whom not one 
word can be truthfully said, and yet not be saved in the 
gospel sense of the word salvation. I wish to dwell 
with some emphasis on this point, because both Prof. 
Swing and Dr. Thomas stoutly affirm that character is 
the only essential prerequisite to salvation. 

Now, I think I can show from the New Testament 
Scriptures, that a man may possess the most perfect 
character, and still not be saved according to the gos- 
pel of Christ. If character is essential to salvation now, 
or, more properly, if it is the only essential to salvation, 
it certainly was the o.ily essential in the days of the 
Apostles, for there have been no new revelations from 
heaven on this point since the Apostolic age. 

In Acts, tenth chapter, we have a description of Cor- 
nelius, the centurion. It is said of him that he was " a 
devout man, and one that feared God with all his 
house, and that he gave much alms to the poor, and 
also that he prayed to God always." It is also stated 
that he had a good reputation as well as character, for 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 149 

he was of good report among all the nations of the 
Jews ; verse 22. Dr. Thomas could certainly find no 
fault with such a character as this; for it is just such a 
character as he describes in his sermon as a saved man. 
Cornelius was a perfect counterpart of Dr. Thomas' 
description. Now, was Cornelius saved? By reading 
the tenth and eleventh chapters of Acts, we see that he 
was yet — notwithstanding his devotion, charity, rever- 
ence, and prayerfulness — in an unsaved state, and that 
he had to send for an inspired Apostle to come and tell 
him " words whereby he and his house could be saved." 
Ocd appeared to Cornelius, and told him to send to 
Joppa and call for Simon, whose surname was Peter. 
What was all this for, pray tell? Why did God tell 
him to send for Peter? Let the Scriptures answer: 
Acts 11 : 14: " Who shall tell thee words whereby thou 
and all thy house shall be saved." 

When Peter came on that heaven-ordained mission, 
what did he tell Cornelius to do? Did he tell him to 
pray, to seek the Lord, to come to Christ, or any other 
meaningless thing? Certainly not. But he preached 
the gospel to him and his household; and what else? 
Read verse 48 : "And he commanded them to be bap- 
tized in the name of the Lord." These were the saving 
words. 

Thus have I shown that a man who was devout, rev- 
erential, philanthropic, God-fearing and prayerful, and 
of good report among all his people, was in an unsaved 
state, till he had obeyed the gospel and became a cit- 
izen of the kingdom of God. In the light of this gos- 
pel fact, what becomes of Dr. Thomas' theory of salva- 



150 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

tion by character? I will let the reader decide this 
question. 

I recognize the importance of Christian character 
yes, its insuperable necessity — but I do not think thai 
any element of character, however commendable, can 
ever atone for a neglect of gospel obedience. " To fear 
God and keep Ms commandments is the whole duty oi 
man." It is obedience to God's commands, that deter- 
mines character. He that says that he loves God, and 
keeps not his commandments, deceives himself; and 
self-deception is, of all things, the most deplorable. 

All who have taken part in this discussion, seem to 
have overlooked the great question of forgiveness and 
the conditions upon which this is suspended in the gos- 
pel of Christ. Let us return to primitive gospel obedi- 
ence, and start right, then there can be no question 
as to our finally reaching that haven of perpetual 
peace ; where, rocking gently at anchor on the golden 
sea of God's eternal love, we shall be beyond the reach 
of the storms of sorrow and care,' and in the light of 
God's glorious presence we shall bask forever and ever 



CHAPTER VIII. 



CONCLUDING CHAPTER. 



I desire in this concluding chapter to present the 
several answers the Chicago clergymen gave to the 
question, " What must I do to be saved?" and compare 
them with each other, and with the teachings of Christ 
and His Apostles. 

These answers, as reported in The Times, contain 
much foreign and unimportant matter. I will omit, 
therefore, in this resume, all except what is absolutely 
essential to a faithful statement of their answers. 

Canon Knowles, of the Episcopal Church, gave the 
following answer : 

" Repent and be baptized." 

This answer is both Scriptural and correct, if given to 
a believer. See Acts 2:38. But the inconsistency of this 
eminent divine is seen in his practice, rather than in the 
above answer. He teaches and practices the baptism 
of untaught infants — a practice entirely unknown to 
the sacred Scriptures, or to the apostolic times, and 
therefore without the least shadow of authority. In his 
answer, he places repenfance before baptism, and makes 
the validity of the baptism dependent upon the genu- 
ineness of the repentance, which is undoubtedly correct 
and Scriptural; but in his practice of baptizing infants, 
(15n 



152 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

he puts baptism before repentance — thus reversing the 
divine order and arrangement. 

He is inconsistent again, when he admits that bap- 
tism is a condition of pardon, and then practices the 
baptism of those who because of their tender age are 
incapable of committing sin. If baptism is for the 
remission of sins, why baptize those who have no sins 
to remit? Is not this a work of supererogation? 

Prof. Patton, of the Presbyterian Church, gave the 
following answer: 

" Belief in Jesus Christ as a divine Saviour and sac- 
rifice." 

This answer is undoubtedly correct as far as it goes, 
and would be quite appropriate to give to an unbeliever 
who had heard the gospel for the first time in his life. 
See Acts, 16th chapter. 

The Doctor convicts himself of folly, however; yea, 
of a most palpable absurdity, by saying that u a man 
cannot effectually believe in Christ as his sacrifice and 
Saviour unless he has become heartily penitent for his 
sins." Here the Doctor places repentance before taith, 
and makes the genuineness of his faith depend upon 
the heartiness of his repentance. Now, it is a mystery 
to me how a man can repent of and feel sorry for sins 
that he doesn't believe that he has ever committed. 

We are taught that "without faith it is impossible 
to please God;" and from this J should infer that Doc- 
tor Patton's repentance which hadn't any faith in it, 
would scarcely secure the Divine favor or meet with 
Divine acceptance. 

Again, we are informed in the Scriptures that " what- 
soever is not of faith, is sir." Would not a repentance, 



CONTRADICTIONS OP ORTHODOXY. 153 

therefore, which was devoid of faith, if such a thing 
were possible, be a sinful repentance? 

The Doctor is inconsistent again. He says that "bap- 
tism is not a condition of salvation." But Christ, and 
Peter and Paul, say that it is a condition of salvation. 
See Mark 16:16, Acts 2:38, and Romans, 6th chapter. 

But the inconsistency ot the Doctor's position is more 
apparent when he comes to define the relation of bap- 
tism to the gospel of Christ. He says : " Baptism was 
the act by which converts publicly gave in their ad- 
hesion to the cause of Christ." How can an untaught 
babe have any " adhesion " to the cause of Christ to 
give in? We will leave the Doctor to settle this. It is 
possible that Presbyterian babes are more precocious 
than the average of the human family. 

Eev. W. C. Willing, of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, gave the following answer : 

" Belief in the Lord Jesus Christ." 

He, too, like the preceding clergyman, contradicts 
Christ and His Apostles by saying that "baptism was 
not a condition of salvation." 

But here is his explanation of baptism : He says, "it 
is an outward sign of an inward grace." I cannot har- 
monize this idea of baptism with the doctrines and 
practices of his church. The church with which he 
stands connected, teaches the horrible doctrine of total 
depravity. If this doctrine is true, why does the learn- 
ed divine baptize totally depraved infants who have no 
" inward grace," for which baptism would be the prop- 
er representative. 

Dr. H. W. Thomas, of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church gave the following answer : 



154 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

1st. " Repentance is the one great condition of sal- 
vation." It will be noticed that all the other clergy- 
men make faith the one great condition. 

In speaking of the importance of faith as a means 01 
condition of salvation, Dr. Thomas says : " I wouldn't 
like to say that salvation depends upon the possession 
of a perfectly orthodox opinion regarding Christ." 

According to this idea, a man can believe what he 
pleases about Christ, no matter whether it is orthodox 
or heterodox — whether he considers Him divine or hu- 
man, an impostor or a divinely appointed messenger 
from God. If he only repents he will be saved, inde- 
pendent or in spite of his heterodox faith. The Doctor 
is liberal, to say the least. 

This is in direct opposition to his Bro. Willing, who 
makes faith in Christ the all-important and only condi- 
tion of salvation. It also antagonizes Prof. Patton's an- 
swer, which makes faith in Christ as a divine sacrifice and 
Sav ; our absolutely indispensable to salvation. 

2d. Dr. Thomas says: " We are saved by character." 
If this doctrine is true, then the moralist who lives a 
moral, upright life, and yet denies both God and Christ, 
stands as good a chance of salvation as some of the 
members of Dr. Thomas' church. 

This doctrine virtually does away with the necessity 
of Christ's atonement. If a man can save himself by 
the cultivation of moral character, there was certainly 
no need for the sacrifice of Calvary. Oh ! why all this 
suffering I why the groans of Gethsemane and the inde- 
scribable horrors of the Roman cross, if salvation is 
simply dependent upon character, and that character 
is at the option of all men? 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 155 

Dr. Thomas, like all the others, says " baptism is not 
a condition of salvation"; notwithstanding Christ said, 
" He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved " ; 
notwithstanding the statement of Peter, the inspired 
apostle: "Baptism doth also now save us." 

He also says that " baptism was a public act, indica- 
tive of the inward change." Why, then, does the 
learned Doctor baptize infants, who neither have or 
need an inward change? "Verily, the legs of the lame 
are not equal." 

He further says that " baptism was a pledge of the 
penitent's sincerity." Why baptize a baby, then, who 
is wholly incapable of penitence, or of either sincerity 
or insincerity? 

How frail are all these human devices ; and how they 
fade before the searching light of reason and revela- 
tion!!! 

Rev. Dr. Peddie, ot the Baptist church, gave as his 
answer the language of Paul to the Philippian jailer: 
" Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be 
saved." This would have been scrip turally correct, it 
he had not subsequently denied that that faith implied 
baptism ; for such is unmistakably the case, as the se- 
quel plainly shows. The jailer was baptized the same 
hour of the night, and as this is the only answer Paul 
is said to have given him, it must have implied bap- 
tism, for he was baptized as a part of the obedience re- 
quired by the apostle. 

Dr. Peddie, in explaining baptism, says : " Baptism 
is a duty obligatory upon believers; but is not a condi- 
tion of salvation." I would like to know what partic- 
ular benefit a believer can realize from obeying the ordi- 



156 



CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 



nance of baptism, if it is not essential to the pardon of 
his sins ! ! 

Dr. Peddie put himself in direct opposition to gos- 
pel facts when he further stated that " he should not re- 
gard a person as qualified to be baptized until he had 
become regenerate and received the divine pardon." 

The three thousand on Pentecost were not promised 
pardon until they had been baptized. Paul believed, 
repented, and also prayed for three days, and yet his 
sins were not washed away until he arose and was bap- 
tized, Dr. Peddie to the contrary notwithstanding. 

The Doctor further states that " baptism must occur 
after, not before the new birth." 

If the Bible teaches anything, it teaches that bap- 
tism is a part of the new birth. Christ said to Nicode- 
mus: " Except a man be born ot water and of the 
spirit, he can not see the kingdom of God." It is 
agreed by all Bible scholars of any eminence that the 
birth of water means the ordinance of baptism. How 
can a person be born of water without baptism ? And 
how can baptism come after the new birth, when it is a 
part of the new birth itself? 

Dr. Noble, of the Congregational church, gave as his 
answer to the question, " What shall a man do to be 
saved? " the following : — 

1st. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." 

2d. "Except a man be born again, he can not see 
the kingdom of God." 

3d. " Faith without works is dead." 

But when asked, " Is baptism a condition of salva- 
tion?" he said "No," and referred to the penitent thief 
on the cross in proof of his position. 



CONTRADICTIONS OP ORTHODOXY. 157 

I have several objections to making the case of the 
thief on the cross a test case in this discussion : — 

1st. The thief did not ask for salvation; but simply 
to be remembered when Christ came into His kingdom. 

2d. Christ did not say that he was pardoned; but 
simply, "To-day thou shalt be with me in paradise." 

3d. The law of pardon ot which baptism was to be a 
part had not yet been proclaimed. The thief lived and 
died under the Mosaic law, before the gospel dispensa- 
tion was introduced ; hence, baptism for the remission 
of sins, in the name of Christ, had not yet been made 
known. 

4th. Dr. Noble assumes what neither he nor anybody 
else can prove — viz. : that the thief had never been bap- 
tized. The old law under which he lived had "divers 
baptisms" or many baptisms, and it is more than prob- 
able that at some time in his life he had enjoyed some 
one of these many baptisms. Certain it is, however, 
that he had never enjoyed a Christian baptism; tor such 
a thing was not, at the time of his death, in existence. 
Christian baptism, or baptism in the name of Christ for 
the remission of sins, was never known till after the 
resurrection of Christ, and was first made known at 
Pentecost. 

Dr. Ryder, of the Fniversalist church, after an ex- 
tended explanatory introduction, gave as his answer 
the following : " We are saved by what is done for us 
in the sacrifice of Christ, and by what we do for our- 
selves in a life of obedience." 

The interviewer failed to ask Dr. Ryder his opinion 
of baptism and its relation to salvation, and hence we 
are left in the dark in regard to the estimate he puts 



158 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

upon this ordinance. It is quite probable, however, 
that he, too, would have said it was a non-essential; for 
in his system there are no essentials to salvation ; for 
the salvation of all is a foregone conclusion. 

One thing is certain, however: his answer can never, 
by any fair or legitimate construction, be made to har- 
monize with his universal theology. It one should tail 
to render the life of obedience which he affirmed was a 
condition of salvation, it would certainly jeopardize his 
salvation, to say the least. 

Mr. Hemmingway, of the Young Men's Christian As- 
sociation, who was chosen as a substitute for Kev. 
D. L. Moody, gave the following answer: 

"Belief in the Lord Jesus Christ;" which is a very 
good answer when understood in the gospel sense of the 
word belief; but Mi . Hemmingway spoils it by subse- 
quently saying that baptism was not implied in such 
belief. 

It is a strange coincident, is it not? that every one 
who was authorized by the apostles to believe on Christ 
was at once baptized into Christ ; and yet these modern 
divines say that faith implies repentance, but does not 
imply baptism. I would like to know what sort of 
logic these men employ, by which they reach such ab- 
surd and palpably impossible conclusions. 

This review of these answers discovers the fact +hat 
in some things they agree, and in others they differ — 
and differ very widely. 

They agree to the non-essentiat character of water 
baptism. I would advise these men to vote baptism 
entirely out of their religion. It seems to be in their 
way, and gives them no small amount of perplexity; 



CONTRADICTIONS OP ORTHODOXY. 159 

and besides, being a non-essential, they have no earthly 
use for . it. It might as well be pronounced obsolete. 
Dr. Thomas ha? virtually so declared it, by making it 
essential only for the heathens of Palestine. 

These men further agree as to the necessity of faith 
as a condition of salvation; but do not agree as to the 
object of faith, or the thing to be believed, which makes 
their answer meaningless. 

It must be manifest to every careful reader that the 
orthodox world, so called, have no clearly defined ideas 
whatever of the plan of redemption, or the law of par- 
don, as revealed in the gospel of Christ. 

Having analyzed the answers of these representative 
divines, and proven them to be at variance with each 
other and the teachings of Christ and His apostles, I 
now desire to offer a brief summary, and put into the 
most succinct form possible a complete synopsis of the 
gospel plan of pardon. 

The gospel contains three great fundamental facts, 
which are to b^ believed — viz. : 1st, the death of Christ; 
2d, the burial Christ ; 3d, the resurrection of Christ. 

It also contains three important and imperative com- 
mands which are to be obeyed — viz. : 1st, faith ; 2d, re- 
pentance; 3d, baptism. 

It further contains three heart-comforting promises 
which are to be enjoyed — viz.: 1st, remission of sins; 
2d, gift of the spirit; 3d, eternal life at God's right 
hand. 

I can not better close this controversial subject than 
to give the answer which the Scriptures of truth au- 
thorize to be given to the question, " What shall I do 
to be saved?" 



160 CONTRADICTIONS OF ORTHODOXY. 

As clearly developed in a preceding article, the Bible 
teaches two salvations, or two stages or degrees of the 
one great salvation: 1st, a salvation from sin; 2d, a 
salvation from the second death. 

To enjoy the first, faith, repentance and baptism are 
the essential conditions. 

To obtain the second, a life of godliness, of piety, of 
devotion and faithfulness are the prerequisites. Christ 
said to the young man when he asked, " What good 
thing shall I do to inherit eternal life?" "Keep the 
commandments." 

From the City of Destruction to the City of Safety 
there aie but ten steps : faith, repentance, baptism ; 
this brings the heaven -bound traveler out of the sub- 
urbs of sin and into the highway that leads to glory 
and to God. Then he finishes the journey by virtue, 
knowledge, patience, temperance, brotherly kindness, 
charity. This last step brings him into the very vicin- 
ity of eternal salvation. 

May both the writer and the reader of these pages 
take this highway of safety and travel it to its glorious 
terminus. And when the trials and heart sorrows of 
life are all past and gone, may the beatific joys of 
God's salvation be our portion forever and ever. 

THE END. 



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